If you're a guy, particularly if you're in the 15 to 40 age range, you should know what the symptoms of testicular cancer are. Over the course of your lifetime, you've got a 1 in 250 chance of getting diagnosed with testicular cancer. While that may not sound like terrible odds, when you take into consideration how the cancer will progress if left undiagnosed and untreated, you've got too much to lose not to be aware of what to look for. Nobody is immune from testicular cancer, as Lance Armstrong showed the world. Tom Green made a documentary to raise awareness, as he ended up losing a testicle to the potentially deadly condition.
There are several symptoms of testicular cancer that you may have if you've got it, including loss of sexual appetite, blood in semen and a significant increase or decrease in the size of one of the testis. If you notice any of these symptoms, it's absolutely imperative that you see your doctor as soon as possible. Testicular cancer is one of the least deadly, killing roughly 10 percent of those diagnosed. If caught in stage 1, only 5 percent of people diagnosed will die. The earlier that testicular cancer is caught, the better for the person affected.
Other symptoms of testicular cancer include pain and tenderness in the testicles, a dull ache in the groin or abdomen and a lump or hardening of one of the testicles. Treating the cancer can be a difficult thing for the patient to go through, sometimes chemotherapy or removal of the testicle is the only way to rid the body of the cancer. Also, if you've already had and beaten testicular cancer, you aren't out of the woods. It has been known to come back, even if one of the testicles has been amputated.
