How contagious is testicular inflammation?

An inflammation of the testicles can be contagious in many cases. The pathogens are transmitted in different ways. For example, a person suffering from testicular inflammation due to a mumps infection can pass on the mumps virus via saliva.

Often, a droplet infection, for example through coughing, is sufficient for this. Anyone infected with the mumps virus usually also gets an inflammation of his salivary glands. However, the infection does not necessarily lead to an inflammation of the testicles.

Here, too, it is true that men in particular tend to develop testicular inflammation through mumps after puberty, so that one third to one fifth of infected men also suffer from testicular inflammation. Also testicle inflammations, which are caused by sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea or Chlamydia, are contagious. However, normally only sexual partners are infected with the person concerned.

In heterosexual couples, a man can thereby transfer the bacteria to his partner, in which inflammation of the female sexual organs can also occur. Conversely, the woman can infect her male partner with the bacteria, whereupon the male partner can develop an inflammation of the testicles. A direct infection with an inflammation of the testicles can occur during homosexual intercourse between two men.

In principle, however, only the pathogen is transmitted from one person to the other. It is not always certain whether the infected man will subsequently also suffer from testicular inflammation, but this is a common occurrence. With adequate genital hygiene, infection with Chlamydia and Gonorrhea should not occur without sexual contact.

Diagnosis

There are various means available for the diagnosis of testicular inflammation: First of all, a doctor-patient conversation – also called anamesis – is important to find out the exact symptoms and the course of events. Often a relatively clear diagnosis can be made from this conversation. The conversation is usually followed by an examination of the testicles, such as a palpation.

If the patient reacts painfully to pressure, or if the testicle is already visibly swollen and reddened, these can be indicators for an inflammation of the testicles. In addition, the doctor can use ultrasound of the testicles (sonography) for diagnosis. Ultrasound can be used to visualize fluid accumulations, i.e. oedema, as well as swelling or torsion.

Ultrasound is a very inexpensive, fast and above all safe way to examine the patient. If the suspicion of a bacterial infection is confirmed, it is important to determine the exact pathogen. An antibiotic therapy should always be targeted against a pathogen, and not as an “all-round attack” with a broad-spectrum antibiotic.In some cases this is not otherwise possible or even useful, but one always tries to fight the pathogen in a targeted manner in order to keep antibiotics with a broader effect in hand for possible later illnesses.

Over time, bacteria develop resistance to frequently used antibiotics, which is why the pharmaceutical industry has brought several different generations of antibiotics with different mechanisms of action onto the market since the invention of antibiotics. For an exact diagnosis of the pathogen, urine is collected and a culture is cultivated in the laboratory. Under optimal conditions, the pathogens then multiply abruptly in the laboratory and can usually be identified after a few days by means of various tests.

In the case of a mumps infection, the pathogen is not classically detected by culture, but rather by an immunological test that detects certain substances in body fluids (such as blood, semen, urine). One of these tests is called ELISA, and is also used, for example, to detect HIV. An ELISA test usually costs around 20€, whereby the costs are covered by health insurance.