MAN TOOK A PREGNANCY TEST FOR FUN BUT HAD NO IDEA IT WOULD SAVE HIS LIFE…

For women, a pregnancy test is an important tool: it can tell her quickly what her future is likely to hold. It can also let her know whether she’s going to have to think about buying baby clothes. But what would happen if a man took a pregnancy test? Many people joke about this, but for one American man recently, the test proved to be no laughing matter.

After picking up an unused test that his girlfriend had left behind in their bathroom, he decided to take it himself for a laugh. He was shocked to discover that the result was positive!

A real mystery

At first, the unnamed guy thought he must have read the result wrongly – whoever heard of a man becoming pregnant? Many women have suggested that, if they did, they’d be more careful – but that wasn’t the issue here. The man decided to ask his friends on the Internet what they thought, so he posted his story and waited for the replies to roll in.

As you’d expect, a lot of the comments he got were less than serious, teasing him that he must be less of a man than he thought he was! One person, though, made a much more serious suggestion.

The comment worth its weight in gold

Very soon, the story had gone viral. People flooded to the board where the man had posted his question and soon there were over 1,300 replies.

But even though his one, simple question posted online had brought so many responses, the guy homed in on one particular answer as being something he needed to think about straight away. The reason? The commenter told him – and everyone else reading – that there was another reason why a pregnancy test might throw up a positive reading even when it seemed impossible: it could be a sign of testicular cancer.

Taking things seriously

That’s not something to laugh about, and the guy realised he needed to act, even though the story was still growing on the likes of Reddit. He knew, though, that he needed to stop joking and read through the comment that had caught his eye more carefully. The person who made that comment told him that he should go to see a doctor immediately and explain what had happened, including telling him that he had used his girlfriend’s pregnancy test. Naturally, he was anxious about the prospect, but he also badly wanted an answer, so he quickly made an appointment.

The mystery is solved

There was more waiting for tests, but soon the man was being called back and told the news. It wasn’t what he’d hoped to hear, as they’d found a lump in his right testiclethat was a probable sign of cancer. Still, he felt relieved to finally understand that test result. He was told that the chemical hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is a possible sign of testicular cancer – but its presence in urine is also a sign of pregnancy in women, and so is often used in pregnancy tests. In women, it affects the ovaries, but almost the only place it occurs in men is in the testicles.

Looking forward to life

Thanks to one Internet comment that prompted the man’s decision to consult his doctor, this extraordinary story has a happy ending. Testicular cancer is one of the few forms of the disease that is highly treatable even in its later stages.

This American man’s cancer was still small, making the chances of an operation being successful even higher. He was admitted to hospital and had surgery to have the tumour removed. The operation was a complete success – though he’ll probably be asked when his “baby” is due for the rest of his life!