Dwayne Johnson Opens Up About His Recent Health Scare

We’ve all had to go through the workday with worries weighing us down. Even megawatt movie stars aren’t immune to it. In Esquire’s new profile of Dwayne Johnson, the wrestler-turned-actor reveals a semi-recent health scare over possible testicular cancer, which took place during a promotional appearance for the next Jumanji sequel.

In the new feature, written by Ryan D’Agostino, Johnson says he recently felt a lump in his testicles that was too sensitive for comfort. In his past life as a wrestling star, Johnson—as his egotistical persona, “The Rock”—often joked about the size and girth of what he called “The People’s Strudel.” But there was nothing funny about The Rock’s balls this time.

After speaking to his doctor, Johnson was told that it was probably epididymitis, or “inflammation of a tube at the back of the testicle that stores sperm,” as D’Agostino explains in the piece. Still, the possibility of cancer was not zero, and an ultrasound was scheduled for the next morning. This left Johnson on edge while promoting the upcoming Jumanji: Open World (slated for theaters on Christmas Day) at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. “So I had to live with that for those twenty-four hours, not knowing—and I had to be on all day, joking around, making speeches,” Johnson says in the piece.

He assures Esquire (and all readers) that he’s okay, and that it was in fact epididymitis. But the scare is a reminder that all men get older, and none of us are invincible. The American Cancer Society says that one in every 250 males will develop testicular cancer. Let this be your wake-up call to check yourself for lumps next time you’re in the shower.

As for Dwayne Johnson, he reveals more to Esquire than he might in a whole season of Young Rock. In the feature, Johnson details his considerations running for political office, relationship rough patches, a uniquely harrowing story about his mother Ata Johnson from when he was a teenager, and his disappointment over the lack of Oscar recognition for The Smashing Machine. “I wish it happened. But it didn’t,” Johnson says. “But in no uncertain terms did I ever think, Oh, that doesn’t matter. I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine … which is: Let’s go back to work.”

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