First post, new member, looking for success stories with epididymectomy.
After 2 years of pain and seeing a number of urologists, doing many things without success, have found someone that will surgically help with pain via epididymectomy. Dr ensures that procedure has high success rate, but as surgery date is closer, and find more bad experiences then good, now having second thoughts!!
Have not had a vasectomy, but have epi cyst and varioceles that is sources of pain and discomfort.
PLEASE double-check me and do your own homework on this as this is strictly opinion.
I’d look strongly at spermatic cord denervation before epi removal. Neither is without risk, and some guys here have been made worse by SCD.
To me, epi removal seems illogical. The testicle keeps producing sperm, but the uros don’t answer the “where does it go” question. SCD seems a lot less invasive, too, and I’m a fan of going for the less invasive option when presented with multiple options.
Seems like many men here, granted their journey started with vasectomy, ended up with orchiectomy after epididectomy. That’s just my read on the stories posted here.
For nearly a decade, epididymectomy has seemingly always had a bad reputation in pain forums like this one. There’s always more bad/horror stories than good ones, including from men that never had a vasectomy. But, we do have a few success stories on this site.
I’m not a fan of the procedure myself. The supposed success rates are to wonky for me. I’ve been hearing a success rate of approximately ~30-50% for nearly a decade. I’m pretty certain there are some published studies that suggest the same.
But, then we have studies like this one, which sites a 90% success rate
Denervation of the spermatic cord (SCD) doesn’t have a great reputation in pain forums like this one either, but we have studies like this one
Keep in mind that I certainly have not seen the linked statistics play out in real time in pain forums like this one. IDK what’s going on.
Thank you everyone and @RingoStar ! Yeah, I have read all the medical journal articles too and feel the same way about all of this. Have never had a vasectomy for fear of being one the few with chronic pain and not allowing the sperm to escape naturally.
Would also like to see more real time feedback on epididectomies. Have maybe found 5 people online, but of course they had poor outcomes.
Some of the medical articles seem to be a couple drs self promoting their own success rates. There are very few drs that will even do the procedure.
Just want to pain free and be more physically active.
Epididymectomy made my pain ten times worse, lost my job and currently on disability, worst decision i have made ever made to have it removed and will regret for the rest of my life unless my pain is resolved. Have since had testicle removed and still suffering from nerve pain cause by epididymectomy. Run from any uro who tells you it has good sucess rate.
I would go as far as saying saying if the pain is life ruining a Inguinal orchiectomy is far safer than an epididymectomy, i wish i went this route instead.
Epididymectomy solved my pain for me. I’ll post an update in my thread, but I am almost 6 weeks out from surgery and I barely think about the pain that consumed every single second of my life for the past 21 months. I know it’s still early, but so far I’m pleased with my decision to proceed with the surgery given my specific condition.
@grease, below is a link to an epididymectomy success story on this site.
Below is a link to @Reversalpain dedicated thread. It doesn’t sound like he’s out of the woods yet, but seems to be trending in the right direction.
I’m certainly not endorsing epididymectomy as anything. Just trying to be helpful.
Epi worked for me for two months, then developed a significantly tender spot, for which there is no determining reason. Uro is suggesting orch next. Could be scar tissue, but definitely feels like the testicle itself. Doc says the testicle doesn’t have pain receptors, and he clipped off as much epi as he could. He also said he’s had only 4 negative responses to epi, over 20 years, so I’m an outlier to him. Currently, I’m second guessing what I had done, and thinking of additional surgery isn’t exactly comforting.
Epididectomy did not work for me either. In fact it made it worse. They make it sound as if you have no other choice if you want pain free. I said to my urologist you needed to be honest with vasectomy. I dont recommend to have epididectomy my advice is look at other options. Losing a ball to vasectomy is not right.
Same for me, initially I felt great and posted about that. Then I developed a spot that hurt like hell. My symptoms triggered a massive sympathetically mediated pain response that led to pain in both legs, pain in my left reconnection site that had never given me any trouble. It was a nightmare. I got my superior hypogastric plexus blocked twice now and I’m mostly pain free. Still a tender spot where my epi was but it is livable.
I’m so glad you’re posting about the superior hypogastic plexus block. I mentioned this before, but feel like echoing because you’re the first I’ve seen (a) get it and (b) get relief from it.
It was offered to me by Cleveland CLinic Pain Management, but by that point, I had pretty good confirmation that my problem is the GF, so I balked, but good to point this one out for others.
I would hit every nerve connected to this area one at a time to try and find out which one it is before trying anything surgical. My pain was so bad I made bad decisions because I was having trouble thinking clearly. My doctors should have been doing that for me. But when all you have is a hammer, let’s do some surgery to ease your pain, lol!