Hello everyone, I've been scanning these boards for the last several weeks for ideas. I admire your collective persistence in the face of this difficult condition.

To add to the list of experiences, and to hopefully draw some helpful suggestions, here's an account of my difficulties so far:

I am a 36 yr old male, fit, not overweight, and have a healthy diet. I am generally active and have been a runner since my teens. I have a sedentary job as a computer network administrator. I have been married (monogamous!) for 10 years and have three small children.

Beginning near the end of January, I began to experience pain above my left testicle. Immediately before this time, my wife and I had been having sex frequently as we were trying to conceive. It got worse over the course of just a few days, and the pain begain spreading down the inside of my left leg and up the left side of my pelvis. I noticed blood in my semen also. I went to my GP, who diagnosed epididymitis, w/o any lab work, and prescribed Cipro. I took the Cipro for 20 days. Initially I thought it was helping, but just a few days after being on the Cipro, the pain was back. By the end of the 20 days, I noticed that the pain (& occasional blood in semen) would come on after exercise, and would mostly resolve with 3-5 days of taking it relatively easy (not bedrest, just being sedentary.) The pain was also less when I was lying down, and I generally felt best in the mornings and worse as the day progressed. I went to a urologist midway through February, who said he thought it was a vericocele causing the problem (he also did an ultrasound which showed only the vericocele & no other problems.) I had had a vericocele on the left side for several years (perhaps since age 30 or so), and it had never caused me much trouble. Since it appeared, it had never caused any pain, though I did seem more sensitive on the left side and asked my wife to avoid this testicle during sex. I also started to keep my underwear on at night after the vericocele appeared--I seemed more comfortable with some support in this area, but again, it had never caused me any actual pain before. The urologist recommended an athletic supporter and that if this didn't help, surgery could fix the vericocele. I read up on the surgery, and the athletic supporter didn't seem to help; I had the vericocelectomy on 2/25. Following the surgery I again initially felt better, but as soon as I returned to physical activity the pain returned, and the residual trauma of the surgery seemed to make it worse; the pain spread more easily beyond the testicle. I stopped all forms of exercise and running around with the kids. The pain lessened but didn't go away. Then it started getting worse again but this time was centered less on the testicle, but higher, between the testicle and the inguinal surgical incision, as well as behind the incision itself. I started to also have urinary frequency and urgency, especially at night. I went back to the urologist, who diagnosed me with epididymitis this time, even though my pain was not now centered on the epididymis (whereas it had been initially) and prescribed doxycycline, 10 days. I started taking the doxy but simultaneously took a couple days off work and stayed in bed, and after a few days started to feel better. I'm not sure at this point whether the antibiotic helped or the rest, but I've been off the antibiotic for 5 days now, and have resumed some light exercise and I'm beginning to get some symptoms again above the left testicle. I went to another urologist last week for a second opinion who basically said he didn't know what could be wrong and diagnosed orchalgia. Both urologists have taken urine samples; neither has taken semen or prostatic fluid samples.

I have another few notable items in my urologic history--they are all only slight bother, but I include them for completeness:

-I had acute symptoms of prostatitis (urgency, frequency, burning at the tip of the urethra) for several days when I was about 20, following a long car ride. They lessened by the time I was able to see a doctor, though he reproduced the symptoms during the digital rectal exam. The incident completely resolved without medication or other intervention.

-Especially when running and occasionally at other times, I have experienced urgency just AFTER urinating, sometimes associated with mild burning in the tip of the urethra. This seems to be more prominent if preceeded by sexual activity.

-I have some degree of urinary frequency, for at least the last several years. I often find it difficult to make it through a movie without urinating, and usually have to get up once at night to urinate. However, I also drink a fair amount of water and eat foods with high water content.

-In the last two years I have noticed blood in my semen on a couple of occasions with no associated pain.

-Occasionally when I urinate I have a shooting pain in my rectum that lasts a couple seconds.

-I have had genital herpes since age 25. Initially this was bothersome, but for the last several years the frequency of outbreaks has been only once per year or less, and generally mild.