Man with 100-Pound Scrotum Raising Money for Surgery

A Michigan man is trying to raise money to pay for an expensive and dangerous surgery to remove a cyst that has caused his scrotum to swell to nearly 100 pounds.

Dan Maurer, 39, told WWZM-TV of Battle Creek that doctors have misdiagnosed the condition for years and told him he needed to lose weight.

But when he saw a program on the TLC Network, “The Man with the 132-Pound Scrotum,” he empathized and thought me might have the same condition – scrotal lymphedema, a rare condition caused by blockages in the lymphatic vessels.

Maurer said he noticed his scrotum was changing in size in his late 20s. For years, doctors told him he needed to lose weight. He did, dropping 50 pounds, but his scrotum continued to grow. He referral to University of Michigan Health System was more déjà vu: Lose weight, the doctors said.

"As far as they were concerned, I had to have lap-band surgery to lose weight,” he told WWZM.

Maurer became ill a few years ago and went to yet another doctor, even though his frustration with the medical community had grown along with his scrotum.

Physicians recognized “there is something seriously wrong,” Maurer said. He was immediately admitted to the hospital and referred to a wound center for treatment of a broken cyst inside his scrotum. After two years of treatment, the size of his scrotum didn’t change.

Hope came with the TLC program aired earlier this year.

He wants to have surgery by the same California physician featured on the TLC program. Removing the growth will not only improve his health, but bring him closer to his wife, Mindy, who he’s been with for 20 years.

It’s affecting his relationship with her and he doesn’t want to lose her, he said, explaining that’s why he wants to have a surgery that could cost him his life.

His first appointment in California is on July 25.

How to give: A Go Fund Me campaign had raised $2,235 of a $20,000 goal by mid-morning Tuesday. A bank account has also been established under the name of Dan’s Lymph Surgery –  ℅ Dan Maurer, Monarch Community Bank, 365 N. Broadway St., Union MI 49094. The phone number is (517) 741-3567. Checks should be made payable to Dan Maurer.