bleeding from tiny surface prick on scrotum won't stop

Very similar situation for me in the last 45 min or so! Not even sure what I did to get the ball rolling (parden the pun) but stood up from the big chair I had been napping in, to find a good sized stain on it. After a little self exam I found lots of blood soaking my underwear and shorts. My situation even included a little bloody material that looked for all the world like tiny red leeches (actually some type of skin-like material, all blood soaked).

It seems to stopped bleeding after a half hour or so. After I wiped and cleaned all the blood away, the source of all this blood was a tiny hole about the diameter of a pencil lead, or maybe even a little smaller near the top of my scrotum (like where the skin texture changes from smooth to wrinkley). Wife checked me really well after a shower with a bright light and magnifier, and it all appears to have come from the tiny spot. I was so scared when I discovered all that blood, and even still quite concerned about the whole thing! Still considering going to the hospital (Sat night too!). I'm 52 and had this once before about a year ago. The actual blood loss was only about... I guess a tablespoon, or a little more, but it seemed like an ocean at the time!

Any more info would be greatly appreciated! And thanks for all the shared stories and current info! :-)

I woke up early one morning and noticed I had bled in the bed and when I stood up. It wouldn't stop.

I grabbed some tissue and got in the shower. I put pressure on the area and it stopped.

I was at my girlfriend's. She has a cat and I thought maybe he poked me to play while I was sleeping. Could be.

The point is it stopped after about 15 minutes. Girlfriend checked it out and made sure it was fine. It looks much better now.

No worries!

Seems to be a common problem with us guys. If you go back a few posts, you'll see a reply by "Doc C" that says not to worry too much.

Now, as to how to stop the bleeding, here's what we did this morning:

I tried compression (pinching) a couple of different ways, but that didn't work (I'll explain why in a bit).

So, my wife ushered me back to the bedroom to lay down. Within just a few seconds, the bleeding stopped.

Now for the explanation. We've got LOTS AND LOTS of little capilaries down there. Pinching doesn't do anything because it's not like putting pressure on a wound...it's simply pinching a tiny blood vessel. As soon as the pressure is released, GUSH! Here comes the blood again.

The trick is to get the gravitational AND blood pressure reduced. Remember when a bone was broken, or an ankle was twisted, we had to put our limbs **above the heart**? This is the same concept. Put a pillow or a book down and cover it with a towel (pref. not white) and put your bottom slightly raised above your heart. Take a tissue and GENTLY keep a slight pressure on it. This is ONLY to catch the blood, not to stop it. The reduced blood pressure will be the key to stopping the bleeding.

*IF* this happens at work, I would suggest keeping a thick wad of tissue under the bleeding spot and finding a chair that you can sit in for awhile that will allow you to lean back aways. Stay put for 10-15 mins (tell people you're taking a break). Return to the restroom and check the status. If it continues, take your lunch break or the rest of the day. Go home and lie down, as I suggested above.

One key thing to remember...once the bleeding has slowed or stopped, don't harshly wipe the area!! I know it's instinct, especially if you want to clean the area, but stop yourself. If you wipe the area too hard, you can start the bleeding all over again. If you DESPERATELY feel the need to clean the area, just get some tissue damp with cool water and wipe AROUND the area (within 1/8" or so) and let it be until your next shower.

Again, this problem does not appear to be dangerous, just bothersome. This isn't the first time it's happened to me, just the longest and the most blood. I thought it was a leaky Vasectomy scar (even though that was almost 8 years ago), so I was more curious as to the cause than worried about it.

If anyone has questions, feel free to drop me a line and I'll do my best to help. I'm a biblical nutrition counselor and my wife is a Master Herbalist.

-- Matt Smith

It happened to me this morning, I don't think it's anything to worry about, but took at least 10 minutes to stop. Two washcloths (one almost completely soaked with blood), a leaky Band Aid, and blood spots on my bathroom mat later. Cold water, compression, sit or lay down. Eat a steak tonight to replenish lost blood (j/k).

Thank you guys for the help. I couldn't stop the bleeding and i wasnt sure what to do. its mid night and can't really go to hospital for this silly thing. so, i have started googling and cant really describe my problem. fortunately, i found this forum and exact problem with solution. I was able to take deep breath and control my pressure. After 45 mins, the bleeding stopped.
thank you very much sharing your experience.

I'm 46, and in the same boat here. This testicle bleeding just occurred a few minutes ago, and kind of freaked me out, because it's never happened to be before, and I didn't even know there was blood in there. Thought it was all sperm. I don't know how it started, because I wasn't really doing anything at the time. It's not from washing my testes, because I rarely take a shower (last time was about 4-5 days ago). And when I do, I rarely wash there. Thought it could be the masturbating though.... That's not rare at all. At least once every day, sometimes twice. Today would have been twice, except the bleeding put the kaibosh on jerk no. 2. Because of the frequent masturbation, the condition of my testes is kind of "swingin' in the wind". That's where the nuts inside have shrunk (to where you can easily feel them individually), and the sack is all loose and flabby, and the nuts are rolling around down there. Don't know if a loose nutsack would be the cause, but I wasn't really rubbing the sack at the time.

I noticed the blood coming from the top of the scrotum. It was dark, thick, and I didn't know how I was going to make it stop, because there's always pressure there, and putting a band-aid and hoping it would stay there seemed impossible. Specially when my band-aids are like 15 years old, and they don't stick so well no more. I had some cheese cloth material in the first aid kit thought, and cut a small piece. Then applied that to the source of the leakage. Then a square band-aid over top. (Which would never stick, I know, I know). But luckily, I had just a bit of white electrical tape on the toilet tank, so with my free hand, I taped over the band-aid real good. Then I put on a second pair of jockey underwear, then boxers over that.

Then I did a Google search to see if I was going to die. (Hey, my dad died of prostate cancer, so....). Then I found this site and figured no, I probably don't have to go to the hospital. Which is good. Not because I can't afford it, as I live in a country where medical aid is free. But because I'm way too lazy to go out of my house to the convenience store on the very corner, let alone the hospital halfway across the city. Also, its winter and I can't ride my bike. Which means I can't afford the bus or subway fare to the hospital.

I'm 63. The same thing just happend to me. I was just getting out of a chair and all of a sudden I'm leaving a trail of blood. At first I thought that I had somehow cut my leg. When I realized that it wasn't my leg I was sure that I was dying. Thanks so much for leaving all of this great information. I'll go to bed without worrying about waking up dead.

Fordyce angiokeratoma

Whoa.. now I know what happened to me last night. I have two of these dark colored bumps on my scrotum, close to blood vessels and finally one of them popped after doing something stupid... Dont want to say, but the jist is.. It popped! The bleeding took a good 45-60 minutes to completely stop. It Kept pumping out with each heartbeat.. one towel and lots of TP soaked with blood. Very scary, was this close to biting the bullet and going to the ER in spite of the embarassment. But the bleeding did stop.. and it hasnt reopened since last night... Slept fine, I was a bit afraid I might do something while sleeping and reopen the wound and bleed out while sleeping. Not fun.

Unreal, I thought that I had a tick on me since our stupid dog has had them recently. All I could think about as I was on the toilet was, "That F'ing dog is gone" - now I'm not so sure that it was a tick. I noticed about a week ago that there was something crusty on the scrotum and i didn't think anything of it until today and then when going to the washroom (like an id**t) I started picking at it and then all of a sudden I had the Nile River on my hands - after it turned to blood. I almost passed out. The thing is, I'm not middle aged, I'm only 36 and now it is stinging down there a bit. Is this something that I can schedule an appointment with my doctor in the next couple of days or is this something that needs immediate care? Thanks.

PEPPER will coagulate blood if applied to relatively small wounds. Ancient remedy as old as India!

The smallest size band aid worked. The ones they call "sport" band aids stick like heck to just about anything.

Well, I'm sitting here naked with a large band-aid on my scrotum soaking up the blood. So far, so good. It's been 45 minutes to an hour since this drama began. While shaving my scrotum, I noticed a very tiny little black head. Knowing it really doesn't matter that it doesn't match the color of my scrotum or look like the rest of it, I still felt compelled to pinch that little thing off with finger nails and that's what I did. Blood start pouring out just like everybody else described. I climbed into the bathtub and started a shower with only cold water in the hopes it would stop the bleeding, but alas no. I folded up a piece of toilet tissue and applied pressure. It was working but kept soaking up more blood. Finally I applied some Neosporin thinking that perhaps the lotion might slow the bleeding down. No. I used more toilet tissue and finally applied a band-aid which appears to have worked. The full size of the absorbent part of the band-aid soaked in the blood and even leaked through the tiny holes a little bit. It appears to have stopped finally, but I'm not removing this band-aid for several hours. I wish I had a wet tea bag to apply to the area. I used tea bags when I had my wisdom teeth removed and they stopped the bleeding of my gum sockets very well. I'm not sure how, but my guess is that the caffeine in the tea causes the tiny blood vessels to constrict. I think the hefty builder's tape sound like a good idea. I'm certainly not going to worry about this being signs of cancer or some such thing. Noses and mouths and scrotums bleed a lot when compromised.

I had it happen recently, but my situation is a bit complicated by the fact that I have a blood disorder which requires me to take blood thinners. Once the bleeding's 1 hour mark passed, I DID head to the emergency room. Here's what could happen to you, gentlemen, if you choose the ER route...
What they did was try compression for about an hour longer, coupled with a cold pack. When that didnt do the trick, they injected me with a numbing agent (yes, that means needle to the boys), then they took these two wooden q-tips with something on them, and chemically quarterized my scrotum. It didnt hurt initially, although the small puff of smoke was very unsettling. Pain set in after the shot wore off. It ends up looking and feeling like a cigarette burn, and a small scar still remains. T'anks for the mem'ries, Doc!

i tried cotterizing it. um... don't try that.