Introduction: The prevalence of chronic testicular pain has increased, as has the understanding among urologists that chronic testicular pain may arise from pelvic floor dysfunction in men. Gauging public awareness of these issues and their treatment is challenging. Online search trends provide an illuminating adjunct to survey-based epidemiologic studies and can inform our understanding of patient perception.
Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of internet search traffic from 2007 to 2021 for key terms related to chronic testicular pain and the male pelvic floor was performed using the Google Trends® tool. The primary outcome was relative search interest in each term over time. Trends in relative search interest were analyzed with descriptive statistics.
Results: Increases in relative search interest for terms pertaining to testicular pain and the male pelvic floor were observed. Coefficients of determination (R2) for linear trends in relative search interest ranged from 0.0597 to 0.6597 for individual terms but were higher for medians of pooled terms. Over the study period, median yearly increase in relative search interest for testicular pain terms was 1.75%. Median yearly increase in relative search interest for male pelvic floor terms was 4%.
Conclusions: Online search interest in testicular pain and the male pelvic floor have increased over the past 15 years. Further research is needed to assess whether these trends parallel patient perceptions of the disease process, as well as referral patterns for pelvic floor physical therapy.
.jpg)
.jpg)
