AndyJ - going from flat to some hang

[AndyJ]

So, with the penis work I've been doing the last few months, I thought I'd go for a purely cosmetic thing, just a nice shiny stainless ball ring. And ran into a problem...

I'd had balls that swung low enough my wife used to complain about getting slapped with them when we had sex, but lately I'd kinda-sorta noticed my scrotum was pulled up tight. *Way* tight. With my balls fully retracted up into my body. And not long ago I realized my scrotum never relaxes, even with hot water or a heating pad.

The fancy Froehle tube I bought a few months ago is topologically a "full package" tube; it has a big pocket for my balls. I bought it because I was tired of getting a testicle cramped up against the edge of my regular tube. The Froehle worked great, and gave me a little temporary ball hang after a pump... but it's a penis tube, and about 20 minutes is all I can do without getting a donut, which I don't want.

So I dug out the spare 2-1/2" tube from the plastic storage bin and I've been using that just for pumping my balls. My scrotum is *really* tight; more than 1-1/2" or so of vacuum is actually painful.

"We have the technology..." the plan is to go up to whatever vacuum I can handle, and then extend the time. One thing about the long tube is I can clamp it between my thighs when laying on my side, so it doesn't get knocked loose when I move around in bed.

Once I was able to pump my balls down far enough to feel them, I noticed they're a lot smaller than they used to be. WTF. Well, I'll deal with that after I get some hang.

I'll update from time to time, but I don't expect to have any earth-shattering revelations.

[FLAK2187]

It sounds to me like you need to speak with a urologist. You mention that your balls "used" to hang lower so something has changed. You may have a hormonal imbalance.

[AndyJ]

Well, yes, something *has* changed. A massive staph infection last year left me with scarring on the shaft and scrotum. My GP got the infection killed off, but the fancy urologist he sent me to wanted no part of any corrective procedures and told me to find a plastic surgeon. He recommended I look in the phone book.

About that time local hospitals prepared for the Chinavirus and "elective surgery" isn't a thing in my area. So I've been DIYing scar reduction with hardware and chemicals.

I knew about the scars: I just didn't realize I didn't have any hang any more. In the greater scheme of things, it would have been pretty far down on my list of things to worry about anyway.

I'll ask my GP about the testicle size thing next time I see him. They don't appear lumpy, sore, or misshapen, just small. Which, I've read, sometimes happens with endocrine problems that are usually easily treatable. Which is good, because it took eight weeks to get a consult with Bozo The Urologist, not that I'd go back to that jerk.

[AndyJ]

Well, crap. I was getting a sore spot on the right side of my scrotum when pumping. It turned out to be a thin spot on the skin, about the size of a US nickle. It's one of the scars from the staph infection. Fortunately, there only seems to be one spot.

Repair would ordinarily be an office or outpatient procedure; slice and stitch, maybe fifteen minutes. But "elective surgery" is still pretty much shut down where I am, and since the thin spot isn't an issue unless I'm pumping, getting a doc and insurance coverage for it might be a problem.

I'm going to back off from 3" to 1" Hg vacuum, reduce the time in the cylinder, and keep a close watch to see if there's any tearing or other problems.

[AndyJ]

I wound up backing off to 1/2" Hg and ten minutes, every other day, increasing five minutes per session until I got to 30 minutes, then going from 1/2" to 1" Hg. The scarred spot seems to be toughening up; it seldom bothers me. However, after a session, the right vas will hurt a bit, like it was stretched. It's supposed to be a foot and a half long, so I have no idea what's going on there. The discomfort seems to be less and goes away faster each time, so I'm going to keep on pumping.

Even though it's winter and fairly cool in the house, I'm making progress back to the hang I used to have. The size of the testicles has gone up as well, so I'm happy overall.

[TinyMe]

Sounds like great news! Don’t forget the heat pad when pumping to keep everything warm!

[AndyJ]

"Real Life(tm)" has interfered with my pumping schedule, but I've managed a few hours a week. The thin spot on the side of the scrotum has toughened up and isn't bothering me any more. The right vas was also painful, but over time it got less so. This morning I pumped my balls for an hour in a 2-1/2" tube at 5", with no discomfort from either place. So "slow and steady" working up to it did the trick.

It's funny how fast you get used to things. My scrotum shrinks back down in an hour or so... but overall it is enough larger that when I'm entering my "full package" Froehle tube, I have to work the scrotum and testicles in, where before I just held the tube on and started pumping.

My sessions at 1/2" could go close to two hours; at 5" I gave up at 1 hour. Even with the edge of the tube radiused with Shapelock plastic, the pressure against the base of my shaft feels like a "pinch" that gets slowly more painful. I may warm the Shapelock up and reprofile it with a divot in that area and see if it helps. I bet I now know why so many ball pumpers like their thick, soft gaskets...

I'm getting faster and better results than I was expecting, particularly since I haven't been able to maintain a regular schedule.

I have some fancy stainless steel weights/stretchers/jewelry coming in. I'll post some pictures when they arrive.

[AndyJ]

I slacked off the ball pumping for a few months, now I'm back at it. Generally getting 30 to 60 minutes at 3 to 4 inches of vacuum, every other day. Not a lot, but it's all I have time for at the moment.

Good news: definitely some hang now, even if not a lot. The sore patches on the skin and the odd tugs inside are all gone now.

Bad news: an hour seems to be my limit before it becomes more uncomfortable than I want to put up with. Either the tube will dig into my pelvic bone, or it feels like the skin on the scrotum is going to split. I've been using shea butter and hyaluronic acid to soften the skin and make it stretchy, and it's working. Not spectacularly, but noticeably. I can go up to 5" without any problem, other than the "had enough of this" limit drops down to half an hour or so. I'm figuring time is more important than pressure, so I've dropped down to 3"

I'm using my "red light therapy" lamp while pumping. And I finally got a good heating pad to wrap around the tube, so I can alternate sessions.

No more time than I'm putting into it, I expect progress will be slow, but it's nice to see that things are improving.

[AndyJ]

Lately I've been able to put more time into pumping. I've been using a Mityvac hand pump, but on a whim I decided to try the Spectra S2 breast pump I bought for $15 on eBay. The breast pump ramps up vacuum in five short steps over a few seconds, dumps back to ambient, then cycled again, for half an hour. It's all set in firmware, not adjustable, just push the button and go. It has such pathetic suction that I had set it aside, but I was lazy and wanted to go to sleep, so I plugged the S2 in, pushed the button, and nodded off. Half an hour later the irritating buzzing quit, and I fumbled around and found the button again. After an hour I was filling the tube about as much as I did with the Mityvac at 3 or 5" Hg.

The next day I experimented with more sessions, and so far I've run it for two hours at a time with no discomfort. I also found I could use the vacuum extender on my shaft and the tube on my balls at the same time, which is an impressive amount of hardware attached to me, but it works okay other than making the "turkey neck" area a bit tender. It will stretch out in time, I'm sure.

I *really* need to get off my butt and finish the programmable pump I was talking about a few months ago...

[AndyJ]

I'm still pumping. I'm getting at least 30 minutes every day, sometimes several hours, depending on time. Mostly I've been using a 2-1/8" straight tube and a breast pump, sometimes a Mityvac hand pump.

I've been mostly putting time in with a vacuum hanger that I have rigged with a pulley and weights. I finally realized I can pump my balls at the same time. Nothing like being able to get twice the work for the same amount of time!

I'm still making gains on sack size, but it's very slow. "Pinching" is still the main limit on my time. I've been looking at going to a larger diameter tube and a rubber gasket . I had brainstormed using a 2-to-3 inch pipe adapter and a 3 inch pipe cap as a stepped tube until I realized that if I eventually filled it, I might have trouble getting out of it in a timely fashion if I had to answer the door or got a service call. Worst case with a gasket and straight tube would be I'd wind up wearing the gasket out the door; I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be a problem.

After pumping there's a "lube ring" visible inside the tube, near the end of the scrotum. Almost 5" now, though my scrotum snaps back like rubber shortly after removing the tube. But I gain some tiny bit each time. I've noticed it's almost never pulled up tight against my body any more.

Feeling my balls against my thighs while walking about after a pump is still a new thing. It had been so long, I'd forgotten what it felt like. I expect it will be even better as I get more stretch.

[TinyMe]

Sounds like progress my man! Small regular gains over a long period are much likely to last!

[AndyJ]

Thanks for the encouragement, TM!

[AndyJ]

I haven't pumped as often as I should; I've been giving priority to my shaft. But I've ramped it up a bit lately and was surprised by some immediate and unexpected gains.

I'm still using the 2-1/8" straight tube and the electric pump at about 3". A few times I was able to slide a cock ring down the tube and get it above my balls. Stretched the heck out of the rings, too. One ball slid out after an hour or so, no problem.

Last week after a 3-hour session I was able to get an "OK" grip above my balls; that's the first time I could do that since... I don't know for sure if I could ever do that before. The pump stayed for half a day.

I'm getting the "thickened skin area" effect several people have mentioned when they started pumping. I've been doing my balls for close to a year, but I guess my sessions were too short to get to that point.

When pumping cold, my scrotum snaps right back up like rubber. When I pump with the heating pad, I keep the stretch most of the day.

The right testicle, which had been damaged a couple of years ago and was shrunken and soft, pumps out to larger than the left now, and hard. It has been up into the "normal" range for a month or so, but it seems to really like hot pumping. I did find out that testicles change in size and firmness from time to time, and that it's not unknown for one to take up duties while the other kicks back and takes a nap. I'm particularly happy since I started TRT back in November, and expected my balls to shrink to the size of grapes. Turns out it doesn't *always* happen, and I guess I finally got lucky.

Anyway, no earth-shaking progress or impressive pictures, but I'm still making headway.

[AndyJ]

I took a 30-day break from shaft enlargement work at the end of October, and shifted my time to ball pumping for November. I've kept it up steady ever since, averaging about an hour a day.

I'm using a straight 2-1/8" tube with a radiused entry, an aquarium pump with a bleed valve to adjust the vacuum to 3"Hg, and a thermostatically-controlled heating pad wrapped around the tube, with the temperature set to 115F. I use a mixture of shea butter, hyaluronic acid, and coconut oil as a lube.

To cut to the chase, I've made very little progress with scrotum size, but my testicles are now *much* larger than they used to be. Also, I no longer get the "skin thickening" effect on most pumps, and I no longer feel any discomfort from the scarred areas when pumping.

I can pull my scrotum down over 7" in the tube, but as soon as I turn the pump off my scrotum swiftly shrinks back to its original size. It used to be almost instant; now it may take ten minutes or so.

It's starting to look like the straight tube is not working for me. I have a *lot* of hours in it over the last two years and I still can't get enough slack to get a ring on, which was what started this whole thing.

It's a bit discouraging, but I'm powering on.

[TinyMe]

Mixed blessings for you I guess. It also sounds like that 10 minute window would be the best time to get the ball ring on. What type are you using, and, as I realised, how do you approach putting it on? (bear in mind that I suffer with an overly tight ball bag too, so if your ring/technique doesn’t sound quite right, I may be able to offer some help)