DOCTORS in Canada saw a divine face in the testes of a man admitted to a hospital with severe pain and an inflamed scrotum, a scientific journal article says.

Or at least, that is one possible explanation.

Two years ago, doctors at a teaching hospital affiliated with Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario spotted what appeared to be a face in ultrasound images of a 45-year-old patient's scrotum.

"While scrolling through the ultrasound images, the residents and staff alike were amazed to see the outline of a man's face staring up out of the image, his mouth agape as if the face seen on the ultrasound scan itself was also experiencing severe (pain)," doctors Gregory Roberts and Naji Touma wrote in the journal Urology.

"A brief debate ensued on whether the image could have been a sign from a deity (perhaps Min the Egyptian god of male virility); however, the consensus deemed it a mere coincidental occurrence rather than a divine proclamation."

The growth turned out to be benign and surgeons removed the testicle.

The discovery was published in the latest issue of the journal Urology under the banner The Face of Testicular Pain: A Surprising Ultrasound Finding.

Originally published as Doctors see face in testicle