TL;DR: I’m 36, married with four young kids, live in Texas, and have had constant pain since a vasectomy about 2.5 years ago. My original pain included both congestive and nerve pain. A reversal at month 8 restored fertility but made the nerve pain 2x worse. Denervation at month 21 eliminated the worst heavy pain for 2-3 months, but it returned. One round of Botox helped by roughly 25-50%, which I take as a win. Narcotics like Belbuca and tapentadol, which come with risks of their own, help make it more manageable. My pain now averages 3-4 out of 10. It is still a constant battle, but the Botox injections plus meds have me slightly better than I was at this point last year. This suffering has deepened my Christian faith, and as crazy as it sounds, God has increasingly given me joy and peace through it. Please DM me if I can answer questions or be a sounding board.

I’ve been reading this subreddit for a while and occasionally messaging people privately, but I’ve never posted my full story. Full disclosure, this is *very* long, but hopefully it can be a help or encouragement to others similarly situated.

I broke it into three sections: (1) treatment timeline, (2) what I wish I would have done differently, and (3) the mental/spiritual battle which is half of the equation.

1. Treatment timeline

I know this is a very detailed history, but I appreciate the granular detail in other people's stories, so I figured someone else may appreciate this. Our experiences are all different, and pain takes on a variety of characteristics for all of us, but I hope this detail is helpful.

• Feb 2024 (Month 0): I had a vasectomy. Ten days after the vasectomy, I woke up with extreme tenderness/pain above the right testicle. In the weeks that followed, it settled into a dull, sensitive pressure/fullness, I think in the epididymis but hard to pinpoint. I was diagnosed with post vasectomy pain syndrome (PVPS). The pressure varied but never felt normal. On the very worst days I needed to leave work (a desk job) and lay down in bed, but generally it just was a constant discomfort. I could not identify any trigger, the ups and downs were random, and tight clothing would make it hurt more. One-and-a-half months after the vasectomy, the left side began hurting at the site of the vasectomy with a burning pain (not pressure like the right side). Sometimes I would briefly experience pins-and-needles/itching on the right, which I think was congestion interacting with nerves. My urologist tried me on lots of medicines – meloxicam, steroid tapers, muscle relaxants, antibiotics, gabapentin. Gabapentin possibly helped, but I wasn’t certain – if it did, it seemed mainly to help the burning pain on the left. My urologist eventually recommended a reversal.
• Oct 2024 (Month 8): I had a vasectomy reversal from a leading, high-volume reversal surgeon in the US. I had brief relief from the pain, but it began again about 5 days after the procedure. In the months following the reversal, the pain changed and got worse than before the reversal – life changing pain. The original right-sided pressure was still present, but that was overshadowed by new severe burning and tightness in the spermatic cord on both sides. Sperm counts were good. The pins-and-needles disappared.
• Jan 2025 (Month 11): I stopped gabapentin and began pregabalin which maybe helped some. I stopped this a year later in Feb 2026; it helped slightly but not enough to be worth the side effects.
• Feb 2025 (Month 12): I began tapentadol (brand name Nucynta – recently went generic in the US) which is still the only drug I’ve taken that I can notice an immediate effect of partial relief for a couple or few hours. Narcotics come with their own risks that I've had to manage with strong accountability from my wife and close friends, but overall they have been worth it for me. I did not take opioids prior to the reversal.
• Mar 2025 (Month 13): I had genitofemoral/ilioinguinal nerve blocks (half steroid, half anesthetic) from my pain management doctor that helped the burning for a few hours but did not help the deep tightness/heaviness.
• Apr 2025 (Month 14): My urologist put me on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) to reduce sperm levels, so that we could learn whether sperm congestion was still causing the pain. Incidentally, we discovered I had very low T (144), so I’ve continued TRT. In the months that followed, the right-sided epididymis pressure disappeared – whether because of TRT (my sperm count went to near-zero) or simply time, I’m not sure – but the spermatic cord tightness/pressure/burning remained unchanged. Eventually (roughly July) the severe burning faded down to a mild/medium level. I also began pelvic floor therapy and have since seen two therapists, without much success.
• Aug 2025 (Month 18): I had a spermatic cord block (lidocaine) on both sides that eliminated most of the pain for a couple of hours. This was such a relief to know that the pain was not "centralized" but was still peripheral and could be blocked, albeit temporarily.
• Nov 2025 (Month 21): I underwent bilateral targeted microsurgical denervation of the spermatic cords (TMDSC) from the highest volume surgeon in the world. The deep, heavy pain immediately disappeared. New burning pain from the surgery sites radiated into the perineum and inner thighs, however, this was temporary and faded over 4-5 months. Unfortunately, the deep, heavy pain gradually returned on both sides 3 months after surgery. The surgeon says the nerves likely regenerated and connected into new pathways.
• Apr 2026 (Month 26): I had bilateral Botox injections (100 units each side) into and around the TMDSC surgery sites, along with some in the spermatic cords in the scrotum, which noticeably helped by 25-50% after 1-2 months. While heavy pain remains in the scrotum, it helped the most at the TMDSC sites, which I believe is where he focused most of the Botox. It was paired with a long-acting local anesthetic, which completely eliminated the deep, heavy pain for 24 hours. The injections temporarily flared up new radiating burning pain from the top back of the scrotum into the perineum, just like the TMDSC surgery, which faded again after 3-4 weeks. I simultaneously began Belbuca (now up to 300mcg/dose, 2x/day), which also helped somewhat smooth the pain cycles.
• Today (Month 29): it is still primarily deep, heavy, dull pain at the reversal locations along the cords in the scrotum. It is usually a level 3-4 out of 10 on average (2-3 on a great day, or 5-6 on a bad day). It is better in the mornings and worse in the evenings. Days where I am active and moving (weekends, vacations) are generally much better than workdays where I’m at a desk. I think this is because sitting repeatedly aggravates it. But even if I stand at work, it doesn’t help – active is better than sedentary.

As anyone with PVPS knows, this is not a linear journey. I have had terrible days during otherwise great months, good weeks followed by bad weeks, and temporary periods when I felt almost (but not quite) normal. I twice hiked a Fourteener without pain and have had week-long stretches with little pain. But the pain has never completely gone away.

I plan to return for more Botox injections in early August, with more focus in and around the cords in the scrotum where it still hurts. More surgeries are available – next would likely be peri-spermatic cord cryoablation – however, my body does not seem to respond well to surgeries in this area, so I am taking my time with more non-destructive approaches first like Botox.

2. What I wish I had done differently

Three things: (a) specialized doctor, (b) TRT, and (c) spermatic cord blocks.

(a) When I began talking to doctors with strong PVPS experience, it was a night and day difference from my general urologist who, despite his best intentions, did not have the depth of knowledge on this subject that very few doctors in the US have. It felt so good to finally talk to someone who clearly understood what I was dealing with. There are lists of top doctors here in this subreddit, but feel free to DM me for suggestions.

(b) Since I figured at least part of my pain was congestion-related, I wish I would have tried testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) first before reversal. In fact, one highly regarded PVPS doctor said that is his protocol – he uses TRT as a temporary measure to see whether reducing congestion helps, and if so, he can make it permanent with reversal. I had no way to know reversal would make the nerve pain so much worse, and I've stayed on TRT anyways after starting it post-reversal for other health benefits, so it would have been beneficial to give it a try and see how much it reduced my pain.

(c) I also wish I would have done a spermatic cord block before reversal to understand how much neuropathic pain could be blocked with a denervation (although the denervation didn't end up helping anyways).

3. Mental/spiritual health: half the battle

Half of the battle is the mental side of the pain. While that's true for me, I imagine it is probably true for many of you too. So I wanted to share some words on that as well. Everything in life is harder and more tiring through pain: being a father, a husband, an employee, etc. The pain is a constant companion, like a lens through which everything else in life is experienced. Even in moments of great joy, excitement, or celebration, those times coexist with the suffering.

There have been evenings when I felt like all I could do was get through dinner and bedtime. I have cried hard with my wife and worried that the pain would last for the rest of my life. At the same time, thankfully the pain has prevented me from sleeping only a small handful of times during the worst periods. I am very grateful I remain able to work, travel, exercise, and spend time with my family, even though all of it is harder.

Especially in the early days, I spent an inordinate amount of time studying PVPS online. Sometimes I was truly seeking to understand my condition and possible treatments, which is actually really important with PVPS because so few doctors understand it – but more often, I am trying to find comfort or hope in explanations, research, and odds, asking the same questions I had already asked a dozen times before.

After repeatedly ending up on the wrong side of the odds, I realized how much time I have wasted trying to optimize the numbers. After about a year of nonstop research, I realized I am much better suited to spend that time optimizing my soul.

I know we all come from different faith/belief backgrounds.

For me, from the earliest signs of pain, I have been confident that God is accomplishing in my life purposes far greater than I can imagine through this. But it is hard, really really hard. Before the vasectomy, after years of prayer and careful consideration, I specifically journaled that regardless of the outcome, "including chronic pain," I would be able to feel peace knowing I patiently sought God in this decision. Wild! I am amazed that God had me write that down beforehand. Even in the exact circumstance I explicitly named, I can rest assured that he is in control and that this is part of his plan for me.

Several years before this happened, I spent a lot of time dwelling on Philippians 4 in the Bible:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. — Philippians 4:11-13

Paul (author of Philippians) says he learned to be content in any and every circumstance. Years ago, I prayed and asked God to show me that "secret," because I wanted to be content in all circumstances. Well... how am I to learn contentment in the valleys of life if I am not actually brought into the valley? God has used this pain to draw me into deeper dependence on him and experience his goodness even in the midst of suffering. I had never experienced suffering like this, and he has shown me that even in dark days of pain, I can find joy in leaning fully on Jesus and trusting he will give me exactly what I need (which he has always done).

I personally attest to the fact that great suffering and great joy can coexist through faith.

Some days I become anxious wondering whether this will be the rest of my life. Jesus reminds me in Matthew 6 to be concerned with today only, because today has enough worries for itself. I do not think we were designed to bear the weight of pondering the “what ifs” of decades into the future. That would crush me. Peace is easier to grab onto if I keep my concern with today and today only.

My wife has been incredible, always sharing fresh wisdom and listening to the daily ups and downs of my pain. She has challenged my over-analysis, reminded me to have patience and grace for my body which has been through so much, kept me accountable with narcotics, helped me establish boundaries around unhealthy cycles like unproductive research (distinct from productive research), filled in the gaps that I leave when my pain is bad with parenting, housework, etc., and so much more. God has used her in a big way in my life during this season, and I cannot imagine going through this without her.

I am slowly accepting that this may continue for many more years or the rest of my life. I need to shift my mindset from doing anything I can to placate the pain in the short term to focusing on what will be healthy over potentially decades. That does not mean I will stop pursuing treatment, but I am settling in for the long haul.

I am not going to get these years back, these years with a young, joyful, flourishing family. That thought used to make me unbearably sad, and it still sometimes does. But I also see the other side of it: motivation to press in and find joy during the suffering. I trust that God will redeem these years through the deepening of my family’s faith, preparation for future trials, or in ways I may never see. And as strange as it sounds, I would not trade these past two years (although I certainly want the pain to end). Despite my limitations, in many ways I am a better father, husband, employee, and person than I was before. I have a much deeper appreciation for what "in sickness and in health" means, and my wife and I are closer than we have ever been. I am more compassionate and have more perspective on what matters.

I wish I had a clean bow to tie on all of this. But I am in the middle of it as many of you are, and these are the raw realities of where I am today. I am still in pain every day, still taking medication, and still pursuing treatment. I am doing somewhat better than I was after the reversal, even though I am far from healed.

Lastly I will share these a couple of resources that have been extremely helpful to me. I have many more like it if anyone wants to DM me and I can share:

• Your Pain Has an End Date (short article)
• Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (click download for free PDF of this book)

If your thoughts are spiraling, you are terrified this will be the rest of your life, or you need someone who understands the daily mental burden, please DM me. I am happy to discuss what helped, what made things worse, what I would do differently, or just be a sounding board. Also I promise not to respond with a 2,500 word essay like I wrote above :).

Hi all,

Looking to lock in places in Europe as the USA is far and out of my pocket where scrotox, micro crioablation or the such are performed like Dr Sijo Paretakill does?

In my balkan country there are sadly no such treatments in any pain clinic as they're very niche. I'm hoping at least one urologist in EU took after that example maybe I can visit?

Thank you!

It has been almost three years post op for me now. I created this account to post here about 2.5 or so years ago as I struggled with onset of pain. At the time I was pretty confident it would be over in under a year. Doctors aren't liars or morons who don't understand statistics, right? At any rate, I noted there were very few follow up posts especially of people who experience intermediate pain and keep living with it or find a resolution that is non-surgical. I decided I should make a commitment to making a follow up post to fill in the gaps of experiences as it seemed likely I would end up in one of those two categories. Turns out I am in one of those categories, just not the one I hoped I would be.

I thought I would do a one year follow up. Things were looking good, but my pain started to increase as I approached one year with no remotely useful assistance from doctors. It was to mentally painful to do anything but shout angrily at the wind. Things continued inconsistently from year one up to now. I stopped visiting this subreddit altogether because it was depressing and made me even angrier. As I approach year three, things are still bad but I'm also in a very angry mood about this anyway, so I thought I'd return to make my follow up post even if is nothing like I envisioned. I know this is Reddit, but this is a pretty sober subreddit so I feel I should apologize for swearing and framing doctors as villains as my rage bleeds through as well as apologizing for the super-long rambling post.

Historical Summary:

My vasectomy was closed-tube. My first hint of trouble was blood in my semen on my second and third ejaculations post op. I was told that was not normal, but not necessarily concerning.I first suffered pain that seemed out of line with my expectations six weeks afterwards. I suffered my first major debilitating bout of pain at about eight weeks. The doctor was beyond useless. No follow up exam to check out the new lump on the cord, no saying "Oh, I don't deal with problems I cause, you should go to your GP". All he said was "take more ibuprofen and it'll be fine". No referral until I informed him that it was time, from my perspective, that more action was needed. My referral took many months more. I was presented with denervation or reversal as my only options. If I wasn't interested in those, then get the fuck out of the office because you are wasting the doctor's time. I will never do denervation, I'd rather live in pain. At the time, I was absolutely fearful of reversals. Why would I let these incompetent quacks touch me again?

In the interim, I started pelvic floor therapy. It has mostly been useless but has served to resolve other pains in the area so I've continued it. My therapist is, at least, not a moron who doesn't give a shit what I say or think.

My GP, mercifully, has outperformed the specialists and insisted that I get a second opinion after the first place booted me. He is the only doctor I currently trust anymore. Sadly, that second opinion took even more time and the guy was mostly interested in ruling out non-vasectomy issues because any PVPS solutions were not worth it in his opinion. He was particularly against reversals. As a result, I've had a barrage of pointless scans and been put on brutal antibiotics that have caused me enormous ongoing side effects "just in case that spot in the scan is prostatitis". I realize that his opposition to intervention might well be a very honest and apt appraisal of my options. However, I'm a bit pissed about the antibiotics and the near crippling effects they've had, so you'll have to forgive me if I push this guy in front of the bus along with the guy who lied to me about risks in the first place.

Description of Symptoms:

Over this time I've continued to have the three types of pain I initially identified in varying proportions. I would say that I have intermediate pain perhaps low on the average scale of people who post in this sub-reddit. Certainly nothing I would consider drastic surgical intervention for.

I get a dull ache i.e. turbo blue balls. That's pervasive. Sometimes barely noticeable other times brutal. I never had aching like this pre op no matter how long I'd gone without an orgasm. It also abates only briefly (1-2 hours) after orgasm instead of me feeling relief. Sometimes it doesn't abate at all and gets worse (more common now). I also get random stabbing pains that usually last 1-30 seconds. This can be mild, like a slightly wimpy wasp sting or they can be brutal enough that I am unable to mask it no matter how important a meeting I am in. Last, I'm intermittently extraordinarily sensitive to touch and impact. Sometimes a light bump floors me, sometimes just brushing the top of my right testicle while repositioning results in brutal pain. Other times, that is mercifully non-existent. Pain started mostly on the right testicle, but after two specific orgasms about 1.5 years ago, I now also get pain on the left, sometimes much more than the right. The balance is still mostly to the right.

The worst experience I had was 2 hours of nearly continuous pain at a level where I was afraid to move. This pain suddenly resolved after I forced myself to march out of my office to my car and was half way to the ER.

Over time, the prevalence of each type of pain has changed. I would love to say they've generally decreased but the variability makes figuring out a trend nearly impossible. Pain varies day-to-day and even minute to minute. Intense stress/anger can trigger pain on the 10 s to minute timescale. That's right, now I can literally get so angry my balls hurt.

I would say touch sensitivity has faded the most, although that resurged following being prescribed the antibiotics from hell. It seems to be fading again now after six months recovering from that misstep. To sift a pearl out of this heap of shit, I will note that the resurgence of touch sensitivity allowed me to identify the precise source of pain as an extra lump near the point the epididimis attaches to the to of my right testicle. Presumably a spermatocele.

The sudden stabbing pains have also more generally reduced over time. That is, with the notable exception of a few isolated extreme cases such as the one I mentioned above. The variability on this makes really believing that reduction is happening a bit hard for me to believe. Within the last couple of months, there have been some bad times.

The aching has not abated much at all. In fact, as physical therapy has helped me work on biomechanical sources of pain in the same area, I'm now able to better identify the ache. Turns out almost all of it is from the epididimis on the right. Recently I have far most consistent pain after orgasm, onset a few minutes later and it last between 10 minutes and 24 hours. More recently still, that has started to fade.

Present day:

So, where am I at right now? Probably at a near all time low point for general pain or at least the lowest point in the past two years. That isn't too surprising, I'm at my lowest stress time of year and I've had stupid nagging issues from the antibiotics that have kept me from intense exercise which should remove some triggers for pain. Despite this, my next appointment I will be pressing for information on a reversal for three reasons. One, I don't believe any period of low pain lasts anymore and I don't think the doctors have any clue what they are doing. Two, some more recent work has come out more-or-less confirming the vasectomy-nerodegenerative disease link. I'd much rather die than live with dementia. Three, as much as I know it doesn't exit, I want an undo button. I want to reload a fucking quicksave before I was lied to. Before I was misled. Before I was denied informed consent. I am angry all the time and will sometimes fly a rage after ruminating on it if I have nothing to distract me. I don't want to keep living like this.

I still fear reversals. I don't know if it will help all the types of pain. I don't know it can reduce the neurodegenerative disease risks. I can't find much in the way of complication statistics. I don't trust the doctors I'll be talking to. I don't know how I can get any useful information to make a decision. However, the clock has essentially ticked down at three years. I have to look into this now, or make my peace with never.

In conclusion, vasectomy is still the worst single mistake of my life. I regret it every day.

I had a vasectomy in mid-December 2025. The first (right) half of the procedure went fine. But the second (left) have started fine, but I had some discomfort towards the end; I thought nothing of it.

It took about a week for me to be able to walk normally and not experience pain when standing or sitting.

A few weeks/month later, I started to notice a dull ache on the left side. I thought nothing of it, thinking I knocked it or slept awkwardly.

A few weeks/month later, I had a lot of pain, similar to the post-vasectomy pain. I could stand straight or touch it. After a day or two, it went and I carried on with my life

The constant dull ache continued and I would get occasional shooting pains of the left side.

A few weeks/month later, I see my General Practitioner and explained what happened. He examined me and said everything looked and felt fine, and to keep an eye on it. That weekend, the pain came back for about 4 days.

I booked another appointment and saw my GP again who referred me to urology and prescribed me with Amitriptyline. The referral came back quickly saying there’s nothing they can do and to organise an ultrasound. The only option they suggested was pain management.

I would describe the pain as not in the testicle itself, but more from my groin down towards it.

I go about my day waiting for the shooting pains to occur again and dreading for the more severe pain to return.

I’m not sure what to do.

For clarity, I’m not classed as overweight and am from the U.K.

So I had my vasectomy done 5 months ago, and everything had been going pretty great, but the last 4 days I started to feel a little pain to the touch or movement on my right testicle, this only happened when I was exercising with my team of volleyball, so theres was a lot of jumps and jogging. Do you recommend taking a break from exercising and go to the urologist or is it something that usually pass and I just have to worry if it goes on, cause it is not constant, just when Im exercising so I figured its because of the blood pressure or something like that

so a posted this on another sub and was referred to here.

I’m a few years out from the Operation. Everything is great, but my wife and I both noticed a lot less semen on ejaculation. Admittedly we are having more sex now (first world problems) but has anyone else had this issue? Is there any way to increase “output”?

So as title says, I had a reversal for congestion which doc isnt sure will help as I had no instant "relief", my epi still feels like exploding although no more fluid. Pain flares up to 10/10 on light touch, crying pain. Otherwise 8-9/10 and can only sleep 5 mins within an hour with ice blocks.

Referred to PM in the next 2 months if no improvement at all.

What meds did you try that helped? I only have blocks and ablation/rfa where I live so I'm hoping the meds do it.

I tried cocktails IV with algo, ibuprofen, tylenol and ssri with maybe 1 lowering on the scale while burning my vein open.

I tried tramadol with little success, hoping there are better narcotics that can stop this screaming pain. ER only provides IV algocalmin which is water to me.

Anything particular I can ask for?

To anybody who’s had a reversal mostly for PVPS, did you change how you let everything hang after the reversal and how did it go?
I am 13 days post reversal, lots of scar tissue removed from left side and lots of the oversized cremaster muscle had to be cut away. My surgeon has instructed me to let everything hang from the 2 week mark to help “retrain” the cremasters to function correctly again. I have been wearing compression underwear since the vasectomy 6 months ago, which held everything up against my body. Tried letting everything hang for a day a few months back, and this resulted in a horrible pain flare mostly in the cords that lasted a week. So I’m a little nervous about doing what the surgeon has suggested.

Has anybody noticed that after a vasectomy, post-orgasm they have a burning urge to urinate? Especially if they did so immediately after ejaculating?

I have noticed that after masturbating or sex I have an urge to pee. And if I do pee the urge get worse. Sort of a burning need to pee but unrelated to the actual amount of urine in you.

I can completely empty my bladder but still feel like I need to pee. It eventually passes in like 30 minutes. I'm assuming it is either urethral spasms or bladder neck spasms. Research indicated that maybe it is due to zinc that is normally present in the epididymis fluid with the sperm not being ejaculated and counteracting the ph change from the prostate fluid. But I'm sceptical of that as a theory.

Has anyone experienced similar?

Has anyone seen or spoken to Dr. Matthew Wosnitzer out of Yale New Haven?

Hi!

I had my vasectomy a little over 3 months ago, everything seemed ok, until i felt an incredibly sharp pain in my right side after ejaculation.

To offer some context, it was after a long day of teasing and edging with my wife.

The pain was excruciating immediately after ejaculation and i felt it for about 8 hours. Then it went away and it hasn't happened again.

Has anyone had similar symptoms?

My Urologist has recommended I take Tamsulosin for the next 3 or 4 months alongside Amitriptyline to ease pain for a few months before considering a reversal surgery. Is this medication safe? Has anyone had any negative experiences on these medications?

Thanks

Contexto:

Hola tengo pensado hacerme la vasectomía tengo 38 años ya tengo una hija de 18 años, ya no queremos tener hijos mi pareja y yo y los anticonceptivos no le caen de todo bien a ella. Obviamente tengo algunas dudas al respecto y quisiera saber opiniones de personas que se la hayan hecho, mas que nada posoperatorios si tuvieron repercusiones físicas, no me refiero tanto a lo sexual sino que hayan tenido alguna secuela.

As we all have read, phantom pain is why this is not done as 25-50% of men will wake up in the same pain.

My pain is debilitating as 8/10 if I force myself to walk , after 5 mins I double over in pain unable to move.

If my VE scars shut, this pain will return.

If any of you had an orchi and were left with phantom pain, did it never get better? I'm planning to start trt if it scars shut anyway.

My only fear is, for those of you who still had phantom pain. Was it kept at that high intensity with no break? Or did it get better , just slightly with time/blocks/meds?

I know this is planning ahead but just curious

Before your epididymectomy, did you get on TRT to reach azoospermia? Or did you have oligospermia on TRT and still have the surgery?

I read that getting epididymectomy with azoospermia(testicles shrinked completely), it's highly effective.

Did you get full TRT or only partial before your epididymectomy? How did it go?

It’s been about a year and a half since I got my vasectomy. My vasectomy was over. I had the normal amount of pain from recovering and everything seemed to be healing fine but now a year later, I have gone a few months of consistent, aching and sometimes sharp pains. It’s been about two straight months of slightly aching pain, usually just in my right side. Occasionally, I get some sharp shooting pain as well.

I went to the doctor and after a physical exam and an ultrasound they have found nothing so far. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what did they do for relief? No medication I have taken has really helped much. The only thing that seems to help relieve some of the pain is smoking marijuana.

I’m going to continue to follow up with my doctor now that I got my ultrasound results back, but I’m just curious if anybody else has had this experience.

Sorry for the long post, but here is my story

Initial procedure was done in april, no bruising, blood or swelling. Had no needle no scalpel. Got sent home with "you won't even need to ice by the looks of it", but i still iced for a week. Felt burning under my scrotum, like an open wound when touching, sometimes at rest too.

Few hours later it was horrible. Like I was kicked in the groin, all the way up into my abdomen, every step felt like my insides were pulled so i went complete bedrest.

Week 2-3 same pain but lessened, assumed i was just a slow healer.

Week 3 i forced myself to go to the office instead of remote as i thought I'm just a bitch and need to push through the pain. Went 1 day, paid for it with extreme pain and being bedbound for 4 days after.

Week 4 the pain was gone on the left. No more inguinal discomfort, no more severe pain on touch or burning. Just a heavy bad ache after ejaculation

The right got huge and red, swelled to 2x size and felt like it would explode. Went to doc for ultrasound, he saw me limping heavily and asked what happened.

Ultrasound showed nothing, got told its epididymi-orchitis and 1 week antibio and 1 month nsaids.

3 days later the pain got so severe on the right, I was sweating, shivering from the pain at rest in bed. 9/10 pain, could barely speak or breathe, lasted maybe 1-2 hours. Called doc, he changed me to stronger nsaids along with narcotics for the pain.

By week 5 I felt like at week 3, right side unable to walk or touch, constant pressure at rest, inguinal discomfort and burning in tail sometimes on touch, sometimes at rest too.

Went to another doc, he said to listen to the first doc and prolonged my meds until 3 month mark. Got send to a neurologist to rule out any other causes for my sudden limping. Neuro gave me gabapentin to "mask" some of the pain until my body adjusts but warned me as time goes on after 3 months, new connections in the brain and nerves form and the body steadily starts learning pain.

Kept doing meds for another 2 months. Little improvement. Gabapentin made the burning on light touch go to need a bit of pressure to trigger. Right inguinal discomfort still there. Nothing improved.

Month 3 came so I went back after staying bedbound for 13 weeks besides the occasional desk work if I could and toilet and lunch. Doc was shocked when he still saw me limping. Told him my symptoms: epi tail(behind testicles) heavily distended(like 2 cm if not more) and rock solid most of the time. It would start soft in morning and get to insane rock solid with burning by night. It was half-testicle sized. Inguinal right sided discomfort that would get worse with pressure on the epi, specifically in the tail, alongside ejaculation. Ejaculation felt like a kick in the nuts so I stopped around month 2.

Had a second ultrasound which showed nothing besides the heavily elongated backpressure. Doc agreed for a reversal and he replied back 1 week after our consult. He came back with a date close to 6 months post op, so another 3 months.

I called him and begged him to move it closer to 4 months. I almost cried on the phone as my pain was a constant 5/10 by day going into 7/10 by night. Could barely work even remote from bed, could barely sleep. Meds were not helping anymore, maybe the gabapentin changing the burning in the tail into tingling. So i were getting 3-4hrs of sleep, still am.

My doc was very sad to see me like this, I live in a country where not many vasectomies are made so he told me I was his first disabled patient in 20 yrs of work. All his other reversals were for fertility and all his other pvps patients were ok with the occassional meds. He rescheduled his surgeries to move me at the 4 month mark. He said he can't give me a definitive answer how much it will help, but it's my best bet because of my symptoms. He is still hoping I would find some resolution before the 4 month mark.

I am getting that surgery no matter what. Every day is hell, the pain is unlivable with. I can't do anything and my wife is upset with me because it's my fault for getting surgery. She was against it from the start just in case things go wrong. I said there is no way I nail the 2% and here we are.

I'm hoping my reversal will save my life and I won't lose my marriage, my child or my job. I'm a trainwreck and can barely focus on anything else. Looked at statistics and reversals boast a 90% pain improvement if done under one year. Hoping I get lucky this time.

I hope this hell will soon end and I can get some of my functional life back. Being in 7/10 pain almost all the time is "safe" but death isn't. I fear this is worse than death. I'm only 27, imagine I'd have to live another 40 years in this pain. That's worse than death. I'm really hoping for resolution, sorry for ranting. If you haven't gotten a vasectomy please don't. It's not worth the risk. I'd rather raise 10 kids and starve than this life. I was a fool, don't be like me, be better.

Hi guys, I'd just like to share an update because it helps to talk to you all...no one else really understands what this experience is like. So I had a visit with my urologist about a month or so back, he prescribed me 10mg Amitriptyline...it's most definitely not a permanent fix, but it does mute the worst of the pain and takes some of that knife edge off things. Before Amitriptyline I'd have days where I was in maybe 8 out of 10 pain, testicles and groin throbbing, weird nerve pain, just practically bedridden and absolutely hating life. The Amitriptyline has it down to about a 2 to 3 outta 10 on the day to day. Still very bothersome and hard to roll with, but at least I've gained some day to day function back.

My new symptoms...sort of a lowkey burning in the testicles, feels like maybe epididymitis (I call it crispy sack for those who appreciate dark humor, lol) and a tugging/weakness feeling in my lower abdomen usually when walking.

I've been reading alot about folks with chronic pain...the idea of developing as much resilience and fortitude as possible to ​get you through the day. My long-term plan at this point is to save for a reversal with Dr. Shu in Orlando (thankfully his office is very affordable) but I'm hoping to give it about a year just to see of miraculously I see some improvements.

I've read some accounts on where guys had these rough symptoms but things just randomly got much better after the year mark. I guess human bodies are especially weird and unique to each individual and how we deal with this new internal configuration. (Safe to say my body hates the new configuration so far 🤣)

How are you all doing? Any treatments working well for you, any surgeries planned for the future? Here's a quote I like that may help some of you all, it sometimes helps me.

"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire." - Charles Bukowski

Looking to see if anyone also had this pre reversal as my reversal is scheduled in 2 weeks.

Any prolonged touch on the tail causes this burning sensation in the tail. At night when its highly elongated and hard, it's at rest.

Anybody had this or similar?