Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffYour doctor will do a physical exam, which may reveal enlarged lymph nodes in your groin and an enlarged testicle on the affected side. Your doctor also may do a rectal examination to check for prostate enlargement or tenderness and order blood and urine tests to check for infection and other abnormalities.
Other tests your doctor might order include:
- STD screening. This involves obtaining a sample of discharge from your urethra. Your doctor may insert a narrow swab into the end of your penis to obtain the sample, which is then tested for the presence of bacteria or other infectious organisms. The results can be used to select the most effective antibiotic for treatment.
- Ultrasound imaging. This noninvasive test uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of structures inside your body and is used to rule out conditions such as twisting of the spermatic cord (testicular torsion) or a testicular tumor. Your doctor may use this test if your symptoms began with sudden, severe pain and other tests have not been definitive.
- Nuclear scan of the testicles. Also used to rule out testicular torsion, this test involves injecting trace amounts of radioactive material into your bloodstream. Special cameras then can detect areas in your testicles that receive less blood flow, indicating torsion, or more blood flow, supporting the diagnosis of epididymitis.
- Tracy CR, et al. Diagnosis and management of epididymitis. Urologic Clinics of North America. 2008;35:101.
- Nickel JC. Inflammatory conditions of the male genitourinary tract: Prostatitis and related conditions, orchitis, and epididymitis. In: Wein AJ. Campbell-Walsh Urology. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/153597350-6/873677046/1445/12.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-7216-0798-6..50011-X_746. Accessed Aug. 7, 2008.
- Fort GG. Epididymitis. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/153597350-3/873676567/1701/204.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04134-8..50008-2--subchapter20_4323. Accessed Aug. 7, 2008.
- Brenner JS, et al. Causes of scrotal pain in children and adolescents. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Aug. 7, 2008.
- Eyre RC. Evaluation of the acute scrotum in adult men http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Aug. 7, 2008.
