Myths in Pain Medicine: Steroid Doses, Spine Surgery, Vasectomies, etc.
Dr. Rosenblum discusses a recent email (below) from a patient suffering from Post Vasectomy Pain who reached out after hearing the recent PVPS Episode of the PainExam Podcast.
Also Discussed:
- Myth of 3 Steroid Shots Per Year
- Myth of Needing Cervical Spine Surgery to Avoid Paralysis if Rear Ended
- Myth of Downplaying Surgeries like Vasectomies (See Below)
"Dr. Rosenblum
I appreciated your recent podcast on Post Vasectomy Pain Syndrome. This is a condition I am currently suffering from. I am being treated by a pelvic floor physical therapist, which is improving muscular coordination, but not improving the pain much.
My vasectomy was in December, 2017 and I have been in pain since then. It was very distracting for about 10 months, and I had a 2 month course of Lyrica which helped reduce the pain. After about October 2018 the pain went down but it is always there. Ejacuation is not pleasurable, rather it feels like someone is squeezing my testicles unpleasantly and afterward I have a dull ache or burning sensation which persists for about 1-2 days.
I thought your reactions and impressions on reviewing the medical consequences of vasectomy to be amusing. The surgery is typically presented as being as trivial as excising a wart. This may be the experience of 90% of men, but if you end up with chronic complications, it is no exaggeration to say that it is capable of ruining your life. I am convinced that this is more common and causes far more suffering that is generally understood, affecting probably 1-2% of men who get a vasectomy. Men tend to suffer in silence. Urologists tend to resist attributing the problems to the vasectomy.
I have collected several thousand links to stories that men have posted over the last few decades, describing this unfortunate disease. I would encourage you to take a look at the ones I have posted here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/wiki/timeline
There are over 720 stories that I have posted, linked to the original source, and indexed chronologically, along with story codes. I have made it my unhealthy hobby to create the best reference possible for understanding what men go through when they end up with PVPS. I post a new story every morning and have enough to keep going for many years.
The best online forum for PVPS is www.postvasectomypain.org
Good luck with your patient"
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Podcast References:
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.spineintervention.org/resource/resmgr/factfinder/FactFinder_2019_06_Annual_Do.pdf
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