TESTICULAR CANCER
Arguably at the top of the list
for the most serious men's health issues,
is testicular cancer. Taking the United Kingdom as an
example, over 2000 men each year are diagnosed as suffering
from testicular cancer. The exact cause of
this type of cancer is not know with ongoing research still
returning inconclusive results.
One thing that has been proven so far is that
testicular cancer is much more common in
men who have one or both testicles that failed to descend.
Whilst a child is in the womb, the testicles grow inside
the abdomen, in-between the kidneys; they will drop into
the scrotum sometime after birth, during the first year of
development. In some cases this does not happen, and this
has proven to put a man more at risk of developing
testicular cancer.
A man with a father or a brother who have suffered form
testicular cancer is also at slightly more risk of
developing it himself, although only a very small increase
in risk has been shown across the same genetic pool. It is
seen as a possibility that the gene is inherited, and could
be the reasons why the disease is inherited, although
evidence is far from conclusive.
It is also still not clear if injury to the
testicles can cause the onset of
testicular cancer, additionally, vasectomy
would appear not to cause the illness.
The symptoms of testicular cancer will
often be painless. Some men may begin to notice an ache in
their lower abdomen or in the testicle itself. The scrotum
may feel heavy; in a few cases the testicle will suddenly
become swollen and painful.
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