Testicular cancer: Teenagers and young adults

Testicular cancer: Teenagers and young adults

• The testicles
• Having tests for testicular cancer
• Treating testicular cancer
• Life after treatment for testicular cancer

The testicles

It can be embarrassing to talk about your testicles and any changes to them that you’ve noticed. Understanding more about what they do might help.

Facts about testicles

Testicles are small and oval-shaped. They hang below your penis in a sac called the scrotum.

From puberty, your testicles produce a hormone called testosterone. This gives you a lower voice, hair on your face and body, and makes your muscles get bigger. You also need it for your sex drive and for getting an erection.

The testicles make sperm from puberty (around 13 to 14 years old) onwards. When sperm meets with a female egg during sex, this can cause pregnancy.

The testicles make millions of sperm a day, but if sperm are not ejaculated they are reabsorbed back into your body.

Sperm wait in the epididymis next to the testicle until they are ejaculated. At ejaculation, they travel up through the spermatic cord and mix with fluid from the prostate to make semen. They go out of the body through the urethra (this is the same tube you pass urine (pee) through).

Lymph nodes (glands)

Lymph nodes are small and round, and connect to each other by tiny tubes that carry fluid called lymph. We have lymph nodes throughout our bodies. They are part of the lymphatic system, which protects us from infections.

Sometimes cancer cells from the testicle can spread to lymph nodes at the back of the abdomen (tummy). You’ll have a scan to check your lymph nodes.

If you’re looking for information for all ages about testicular cancer, read our general testicular cancer section.