Epididymal cyst pain during some runs :-(

I don't know. I'm not your dotor.

Rick Sanchez wrote:

I don't know. I'm not your dotor.

I know but my doc told me to do all the above, some of the questions I forgot to ask as I was very nervous not knowing what was coming. When you are worried that you might have testicular cancer then logic goes out of the window. It was just a relief knowing it is not life threatening. My next appointment is in 10 days and I will ask follow up questions.

I am just asking for second opinion from runners with experience. Just because a doc tells me to jump off a building does not mean I would do that ;-) I am reading articles that say taking high dosage of ibuprofen for just 1 week raises your heart attack risk ;-O

Now is 2 x 600mg his dosage?

You have three issues here: pain, cyst, ibuprofen. Let's look at each.

1. Pain. It could be your pain is due to lack of support. Many running shorts have insufficient liners for support. The bouncing around could be causing you pain by stretching the inguinal cord or other reasons. This is a recurring problem for me. I can't even jog to the corner without wearing something under my non-running cargo shorts... so I cut out the liners of all my running shorts and wear a supportive brief made of high-tech wicking fabric instead. My favorite briefs are Asics, but I wear Puma, Adidas, and other brands of boxer briefs under my shorts in the winter.

2. Cyst: No idea whether this is the source of your pain or not. I'd guess that if it was, it would be sore to the touch. Regardless, more supportive briefs might help by keeping everything from bouncing around for hours at a time.

3. Ibuprofen: Ibuprofen is an over the counter (nonprescription) medication in the US. I'd guess if the risk of heart attack was even 1 in 10,000, runners would be dropping dead all over the US every day. There is a risk of liver and kidney damage from prolonged use that is exacerbated by dehydration. I'd recommend against taking it before the marathon. Personally, I'd just delay taking the ibuprofen until after the marathon. Then, it can help with any muscle soreness you will have.

Oh, I forgot to mention... when the inguinal cord stretches, you can feel the pain in your lower abdomen or in your testicles. Do you have any abdominal pain? Did your doctor check for a hernia? The "turn your head and cough" routine? It's probably not a hernia if you don't have some abdominal pain, but it's easy enough to rule out.

Hi Fisky. Thanks for your helpful post. I ran 4 days ago with a support boxer brief and pain came back at km 9 or so.

It was soar to the touch. We are sure pain is due to the cyst and nothing else.

I have 0 abdomen pain...in fact I attend multiple core exercise classes weekly and if I had hernia I would feel some pain.

"I'd recommend against taking it before the marathon. "

I was going to take the last Ibuprofen 10 days before the marathon. Are you saying I should not take that? I was thinking that 10 days would be enough to clear ibuprofen out of my system?

or did you mean on the actual day of the marathon? I was not planning to take on race day anyway nor after as taking ibuprofen after running a marathon can still be deadly.

I meant on the day of the marathon and the day before. You should be fine. Good luck with the cyst. I have a friend with a cyst behind her knee and it can really hurt.

Thanks :-)

Had to Google cyst behind the knee. Looks potentially painful.