Used heating pad on testicles for birth control, gave myself cancer.

Hi John,

Sorry to hear that you are now amongst us, I hope its been detected early and that your treatment will be easy.

You make a link between heating your testicles and that being the cause of the cancer. Very few us know of the definitive reason we got TC, whether it was genetic, environmental or just chance. I haven't heard of heating testicles being a cause for TC (that would suggest higher incidence in hotter climates and the opposite seems to be true with white males in colder northern latitudes more likely to have TC than those neaer the equator). I think there needs to be sufficient evidence of this before pressing the word, as the first thing people will ask about is evidence. I wouldn't want men strapping ice packs to their nether regions unnecessarily!

Greg.

Hi John

I agree you could be beating yourself up unnecessarily, I didn't drink, smoke, led a chaste life, didn't have a microwave nor a mobile phone and I still got it. I asked my doctor and he said I was just unlucky. My sister got breast cancer at 42 and I got testicular cancer at 42 so I put it down to being genetic. Loads of blokes who don't practise this form of contraception still get it. Thanks for mentioning it though.

Cheers

Rich

Hello Greg and Rich,  

  Well after a few years of using the heating pad I noticed that my right testicle ( the testicle that later developed cancer) had shrunk down to about half the size, this should have alarmed me and made me think twice about using the heating pad again,  but it didn't.  I take that as evidence. Also I stopped using the heating pad for a couple months because of a lack of intimacy between my girlfriend and I. The last night I used the heating pad, which was the first time I used it in a couple months, that's when the pain began, that's when my tumor began. I've also read that any infertility in men increases the likelihood of developing testicle cancer. I guess it's possible that my tc is unrelated to the heating pad but I just don't believe it. 

Yes we did catch it early,  stage 1 embroyonal no vascular invasion. I recently finished 2 courses of bep. I hope that was the right move. They told me without chemotherapy I has a 30 to 45% chance of it coming back and with chemo they say my chances are only 2%. Now I'm breaking out in hives, have been for at least 3 weeks now.

Hi,

Yes, many people given the choice of surveillance or a quick chemo take the latter - it reduces worrying somewhat but not entirely. The risks go down to 1~2%, and the vast majority of relapses (95%) occur within the first 2 years, so the longer you're clear the better the odds become. After 2 years the odds drop to about ~0.1%.

After you initial post it got me thinking, and its an important question. I found lots of sites saying temperature wasn't an issue, but I was unsatisfied leaving at that, they had to show me why. That led me to one medical study with the catchy title "Elevated Intrascrotal temperature and the incidence of testicular cancer in non-cryptoorchid men". They studied 323 men diagnosed with TC and 658 without to see if there was an correlation between developing TC and higher scrotal temperatures (hot tub & sauna use, tight shorts, thermal underwear). Of the men with TC fewer had used hot tubs and saunas recently than those without TC, but not significantly so.

The best bit of your mail for me is that you found the TC quickly, and got it nuked. Sorry to hear about the hives, I haven't heard of that before, but others have found that previous ailments or dormant ones have taken their chance and re-emerged whilst chemo has the body's defences down. I hope it clears up soon.

Greg

Hello Greg,  thanks for the kind words.

  Maybe heat isn't responsible for higher rates of testicle cancer maybe the radiation from the heating pad is responsible for my tc. I came across this link that discusses radiation from appliances, tools, towers, WiFi, interesting link http://www.best-emf-health.com/emf-emissions.html

Hi,

Yes, and for every rule there are exceptions, so I don't think even though the study says its unlikely in general, you are a specific individual and your case may be different. I genuinely don't think you've done it to yourself, but the advice of all things in moderation is a good one, and doing anything to the maximum tends to stress our bodies.

I hope the other side effects are clearing now and you're through this,

Greg

Hi John

Yup and that's why I didn't have a microwave or a mobile phone because of fears of radiation and I still got it. Bottom line for me was my sister had breast cancer at 42 and I had testicular cancer at 42. So for me its genetic and something to do with the hormones.

My son didn't have MMR as it was associated with autism. But he is somewhere on the autistic spectrum and if we had had the MMR we would have blamed it on that.

If its there in your genes, it doesn't matter what you put on your jeans (heating pad or ice), it will still come out. 

Hope this helps

Rich

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