Participants: Nick Evenson (Host), Dr. James Marcum
Series Code: UP
Program Code: UP000088B
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00:01 Welcome back to the programme, I'm your host Nick Evenson,
00:02 and on the Ultimate Prescription today, 00:04 we're discussing pain 00:06 that happens in the urogenital areas, 00:08 which is a difficult topic. 00:10 And if you want to get some information 00:13 or ask us questions, 00:14 we want you to visit our website 00:15 at HeartwiseMinistries.org. 00:17 There's a lot of health resources there, 00:19 and it also links back to previous radio 00:21 and television programs 00:23 and they're just a lot of good health resources there. 00:24 So reach out to us through the website 00:25 if you have questions and, Dr. Marcum, thank you 00:29 for discussing this with us, it's not an easy topic. 00:31 Yeah, yeah, no. 00:32 And gynecological specialists are the ones 00:35 that really have this knowledge. 00:36 And we have several of them work with us. 00:38 And if they send their questions to the website, 00:40 we'll make sure we get it answered. 00:43 But I find it very difficult for men. 00:45 Men don't like to talk about these things 00:47 'cause they're proud, 00:48 they have a lot of reasons that they avoid it. 00:52 And usually these problems are not life threatening, 00:55 but they can be incapacitating in other ways. 00:58 And so it's important that we talk about it today, 01:00 and there's been quite a few questions, 01:01 so let's try to answer them the best we can. 01:04 All right. 01:05 Well, our first viewer writes in and asks, 01:07 "Why is pelvic inflammatory disease so serious?" 01:10 And what is pelvic inflammatory disease? 01:12 Let's describe that a little bit, it's, you know, 01:15 really not the pelvis that's inflamed, 01:17 but you have tubes, 01:19 a female has tubes that connect with the ovaries, okay, 01:22 where they make an egg, it travels down that ovary, 01:25 it leaves the ovaries and it travels down a tube 01:27 called the fallopian tube. 01:28 Right. 01:30 And then it heads out towards the uterus, okay. 01:32 Well, different pelvic inflammatory, 01:36 different conditions can cause inflammation of this area. 01:39 Okay. Okay? 01:40 And inflammation is as we've learned 01:42 in other parts of the body, inflammation can cause pain. 01:44 Right. 01:46 Inflammation immune cells come to this area 01:48 can cause pain and also can cause 01:51 disruption in normal function. 01:53 Okay. Okay. 01:54 And there's certain things 01:55 can cause inflammation in this part of the body. 01:59 Some women, as a reproductive, for pregnancies, 02:03 they use IUDs and sometimes IUDs 02:06 can cause inflammation, of course, infections. 02:09 Especially the sexually transmitted 02:11 diseases of Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, 02:13 those can cause that. 02:15 There's conditions we have 02:16 chronic inflammation endometriosis, 02:18 some people have heard of that. 02:20 Some chronic infections can cause this. 02:22 It has a lot of pelvic pain. 02:25 You might diagnose this 02:26 because when they examine this area, 02:28 there's lot of tenderness in this area. 02:30 It might hurt when you have relations 02:32 in this area. 02:33 And one of the big reasons 02:35 why I think we need to bring it up is 02:36 'cause people with pelvic inflammatory disease, 02:39 they have increased risk of Ectopic Pregnancies. 02:42 Okay. 02:44 Okay, because when the egg is fertilized, 02:45 you know, it can't move through the tubes as well. 02:47 Right. 02:49 So it can't get to the, 02:50 so they have ectopic pregnancies, 02:51 that can be very dangerous. 02:53 And so, that's, you know, 02:55 they say if you have pelvic inflammatory disease, 02:57 the chance of an ectopic pregnancy 03:00 increases 10 times. 03:01 Oh, wow. 03:03 And that's, you know, 03:04 we have fertilization in the tube, 03:06 and then it doesn't move and then the tube 03:08 can have something serious happen... 03:09 Yeah. 03:11 In that, so this is a big problem. 03:14 Another situation that happens, 03:17 if you have pelvic inflammatory disease, 03:19 it makes it harder to have a baby later on, 03:22 because, of course, 03:23 the tubes aren't working as well, 03:25 it's harder to work through those tubes 03:27 to get what needs to be accomplished. 03:30 So those are two things that we need to talk about 03:33 pelvic inflammatory disease. 03:35 If you're having lots of tenderness in that area, 03:38 see your doctor, they wonder if they can do some examination 03:41 to see if you might have pelvic inflammatory disease 03:43 if it's due to infection, 03:45 of course, they would treat that. 03:46 And they might want to be very sensitive to you 03:49 if you ever were to get pregnant, 03:51 so watch out for ectopic pregnancies. 03:52 Right. 03:54 We've got another viewer who writes in and asks, 03:55 "What is Peyronie's disease 03:57 and what's the treatment for it?" 03:58 Yeah. 04:00 Peyronie's disease is a disease that affects about 1 in 20 men. 04:03 Okay. Okay. 04:05 That's a fair number of 5%. Yeah, mm-hm. 04:06 Okay. 04:08 And this is really a simple way 04:09 to think of it as arthritis of the penis, okay? 04:12 Inflammation of the penis and specifically 04:14 you have connective tissue that's very painful. 04:18 And it can lead to a lot of scar tissue. 04:21 And when the scar tissue develops, 04:23 it can cause lots of pain. 04:25 Now the good news, 04:27 the good news is even though lots of people have it, 04:30 20% of those that have it spontaneously improve, 04:34 so a lot of them just get better on their own 04:36 and it goes away. 04:37 Mm-hm. 04:39 However, if it progresses and is very painful, 04:41 some might need surgery 04:43 or some might even need a prosthesis if it progresses. 04:46 Now those are the most serious cases. 04:47 Yeah. 04:48 The doctors that specialize in that are urologists. 04:51 Mm-hm. Okay? 04:53 And they would know the questions to ask, 04:55 the detailed questions that would go into that, 04:58 a lot of men don't like to mention that, 05:02 you know, they won't even mention that things hurt. 05:03 Right, sure, sure. 05:04 But when a man has his penis that hurts, 05:06 there's some serious things that it can be. 05:08 It can be an infection, it can be Peyronie's, 05:11 and they want to look and make sure 05:12 all the parts are working well. 05:14 They're doing what they should do 05:15 and make sure there's nothing more serious going on. 05:18 So the urologist is the person to go to 05:21 when you have this type of symptom. 05:22 Now, I generally think, for some reason, 05:24 I think of arthritis being more in the hands or places 05:27 where there's bone structures, but really you're saying 05:29 it's in soft tissue? 05:30 Yes, soft tissue, the connective tissue. 05:31 The connective tissue? 05:33 The connective tissue and that's throughout the body, 05:35 okay. 05:36 You know, you have connective tissue 05:38 in the ear, unfortunately, 05:39 it doesn't cause too many problems in the ear, 05:40 but yes, you can have inflammation that's abnormal, 05:43 it's plaques. 05:45 You know, there's connective tissue plaques 05:46 and it pushes on things it shouldn't put on. 05:48 And when the normal function's disrupted, guess what, 05:52 the nerves say, "Oh, I'm not happy here." 05:54 There's lots of nerves in this parts of the body, 05:57 and they're used to being very sensitive to things. 05:59 And when things aren't right, the nerves go, 06:00 "Oh, this plaque is disrupting my normal function, 06:03 I'm going to cause pain. 06:05 I'm going to tell the host that something's not wrong." 06:08 So, our duty when we have pain, we should say, 06:10 "Well, something's not wrong, let me find out what it is." 06:13 Because chronic pain is not good. 06:15 So if something's not feeling well, 06:17 get it checked out. 06:18 Exactly, exactly. Yeah. All right. 06:19 We've got another question, also again referring to men. 06:23 "What causes pain in the scrotum?" 06:25 Yeah and... 06:26 Is this a common thing that people experience or... 06:28 Actually, actually, I'm not a urologist, 06:30 so I don't know, 06:31 but when I was preparing for this program, 06:35 it's one of the most common questions 06:37 that's not asked. 06:38 Oh, really? 06:40 So I said, "Well, we're gonna ask this, 06:41 you know, that we're gonna ask this question today and see." 06:43 Not talked about a lot. 06:45 Talk about it, but there's many different causes, 06:47 and the number one cause of scrotal pain is trauma, okay. 06:53 Okay. 06:55 Trauma, you know, we talked about it, 06:57 you know, bicycles, 06:59 you know, constant repetitious pain on this area. 07:02 Some people get inadvertently hit in this area, 07:05 causes lots of pain. 07:07 Whenever the body has trauma to it, 07:10 it starts to swell, inflammation, 07:13 lots of nerves are activated, the body tries to fix itself. 07:16 Sometimes, the pain increases pressure in an organ, 07:19 swelling in an organ that causes major problems. 07:22 Right. 07:23 So trauma is probably the number one 07:25 cause of scrotal pain. 07:26 I tend to think of trauma in that area 07:29 usually goes away on its own. 07:30 Yes, usually, it does. 07:31 Now if it's prolonged for a period of time, what's next? 07:36 That's right, sometimes you can actually have 07:38 damage to the testis, and the other tissue in there, 07:42 epididymis, etcetera. 07:43 Mm-hm. 07:44 And if it's damaged, then you really sometimes things 07:46 can get torsed, turned around, and doesn't move as well. 07:49 Sometimes the tubes can get obstructed, okay. 07:53 And that causes lot of pain as well. 07:55 And what would happen if the pain continues? 07:58 You would probably see a urologist 08:00 and they would do a complete physical, 08:02 they'd also do an ultrasound 08:05 to see if there's been serious damage, 08:07 to see if the testes or the tubes have been damaged. 08:10 Sometimes, they actually find 08:13 that the scrotum has been damaged, 08:15 not by trauma, but it's damaged by cancer. 08:18 Okay. 08:20 Testicular cancer is rare but it does exist, 08:23 and testicular cancer is another cause of pain 08:27 to the scrotal area. 08:28 And if it's diagnosed early, it can be very well treated. 08:32 There's some famous athletes that have had that in the past, 08:35 and it's been Very well publicized. 08:37 But I'd say, you know, if you're having pain 08:39 in the scrotal area, see if it's trauma, 08:42 if the pain doesn't go away, it needs help right away. 08:44 And then a man can examine this area themselves. 08:47 If you feel anything that's hard, 08:49 that's like a rock, 08:50 that would be consistent with something that shouldn't be, 08:53 and you need to get it checked in to right away. 08:54 Right, right. 08:56 So those are some of the more common causes 08:57 on trauma, torsion, obstruction of the tube, 09:00 see a urologist. 09:02 He'd do some ultrasound, make the diagnosis, 09:04 and in severe cases, they have lots of modern medicine 09:07 that they can do to take care of the problems. 09:09 I was gonna ask, is it often surgery 09:11 that they use or... 09:12 Well, sometimes, they have to do, 09:14 rarely they have to do an orchiectomy, okay, 09:16 and that's where they, you know, take the testes out, 09:18 and that can be done. 09:19 Right. 09:21 And that would be the most extreme case. 09:23 And sometimes, they can manipulate 09:24 and relieve the pressure as well, 09:26 but you don't want it to, 09:28 especially if you're young and want to have a family, 09:31 you'd want to get it evaluated because a chronic problem 09:34 could hurt your fertility down the road as well. 09:36 Sure. Right. 09:37 So that's why it's something to have evaluated soon, 09:40 and a lot of men don't like to talk about problems 09:43 in their reproductive organs you know. 09:44 Yeah, right. 09:45 They'll talk about stones, they'll talk about the pain 09:47 that they got, playing ball with junior, you know, 09:49 "I got hit in the mouth, and now I can't breathe anymore 09:51 and my shoulder's hurting" and you know... 09:53 Right. 09:54 They like those type of pains 09:56 but when it gets personal pains, they don't, 09:57 but I'm telling them that it's okay. 09:59 Yeah. 10:01 Don't let a little problem become a big problem. 10:03 Now you mentioned cancer a minute ago, 10:05 and we've got another question. 10:06 Someone writes in, "how is bladder cancer diagnosed?" 10:09 Yeah. well, that's a good question 10:10 'cause cancer can occur anywhere in the body, right? 10:13 Right. 10:14 It can occur in the urogenital tract, 10:16 it can happen in the kidneys, it can happen through 10:18 in the bladder cancer, 10:19 it can happen in the reproductive organs 10:21 as well. 10:23 Bladder cancer is usually diagnosed 10:25 by someone having a symptom that they don't feel right. 10:28 Yeah. 10:29 It's something out of the ordinary. 10:30 When they go to their doctor, they might have something, 10:32 they usually have blood in the urine, you know, 10:34 something like that will show up, 10:36 they might have some pain or some presenting symptoms. 10:39 And the doctor would go 10:40 and they do a test where they can actually go 10:42 into the bladder, they can look in the bladder, 10:44 and they can see if there are cells 10:46 that shouldn't be there, 10:47 a growth that shouldn't be there. 10:49 They will take that growth out, okay, 10:51 and look at it under the microscope. 10:53 Now other cancers that are, you know, 10:55 bladder cancer happens in the bladder, of course, 10:57 but we've heard a lot about prostate cancer, okay and... 11:00 Right. 11:02 Men can, when they get their prostate examined, 11:03 you can feel nodules on the prostate, 11:05 feels like marbles, 11:07 and the doctor can go up and biopsy that 11:09 and see if there's a cancer there. 11:11 But, of course, cancer in the testes 11:12 feels like a marble, 11:16 in the female tract, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, 11:20 those are cancers that can press on organs 11:22 and have pain as well. 11:23 Yeah. 11:25 So whenever you have pain in the urogenital system, 11:26 you know, they would say, 11:27 "Well, where's the pain coming from?" 11:29 And you say, "Well, it's coming from here." 11:30 So your doc will say, "Well, let me see if I can find out 11:32 what's causing the pain." 11:34 They would think infection but on the list, 11:36 they'd say, "Well, could they have 11:37 a possibility of a cancer?" 11:39 And they would evaluate that with ultra-sounds, CAT scans. 11:43 If they thought it was a cancer, 11:44 the next step would be to biopsy it 11:46 and see exactly what it is. 11:47 Right, right. 11:49 You know, we're just about out of time today, 11:51 but what would you say is the most important 11:53 take home point that we've discussed today? 11:56 Well, like we've talked about in pain, 11:57 when you have pain, that's your warning system 11:59 that something's not right, get it evaluated, 12:02 and try to get back to doing the things 12:04 to stay healthy 12:06 so we don't have chronic pain 12:07 and don't be embarrassed, you know, go and get help. 12:10 That's right. 12:11 We have professional people, 12:12 and the professionals that help with this type of pain 12:14 are the urologists, okay, the gynecologists, 12:18 those are the ones that really do the best job 12:20 with this type of pain. 12:22 And if you might have a question 12:23 that we can help you with 12:24 or get you to the right person, 12:26 go to our website HeartwiseMinistries.org. 12:29 Okay, Marcum, thank you for sharing your thoughts, 12:30 and thank you for at home for viewing our program today. 12:32 We hope that it's been beneficial 12:34 and helped you through maybe some issues 12:36 that you're experiencing. 12:37 Stay with us and there's more to come 12:39 on the Ultimate Prescription. 12:48 Let's take a moment together as we pray. 12:51 Let's bow our heads. 12:54 Heavenly father, there are many out there 12:55 that suffer from pain. 12:58 We pray that you be especially close to them 13:00 and lead them in the path 13:02 that they should go to deal with these pains, Father. 13:05 We thank you for being our ultimate physician 13:08 and for your saving grace. 13:10 We thank you for your love and kindness. 13:12 Amen. 13:14 Well, we covered a lot of topics today, 13:18 if you like more information, please go to our website, 13:20 that's HeartwiseMinistries.org. |
Revised 2016-12-31