Undescended Testicals in boys, surgery…

[Anonymous]

My little guy’s testicals are undescended. They were descended at birth, but at his 6 month check up his doctor said they were no longer descended. (I didn’t know they could go back up!).

She told me to keep an eye on it. Well, they’ve been stuck (where ever it is they go when they are not descended) for over a month now. I talked to the doctor today and she said we will watch it until he is a year old; that the Pediatric Urologist (there’s only one for our tri-state area) won’t do anything until he is over one year old. She said that if they don’t come down by his first birthday he will probably need surgery.

She said look when he’s in a warm tub and see if they come down. I haven’t noticed that they do, but if they only come down when he’s in a warm tub, is that o.k.?

OMG, I’m scared. Have any of your little boys had this surgery? Is it bad?

Have any of your boys had undescended testicles for months, but then they came down so no surgery was needed?

Please, I know a lot about babies, but nothing about this!! Any experience or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

ndrose2006-4-28 15:44:8

[Anonymous]

i think it is ok if they only come down when it is warm, that means they are mobile. i didn’t know they could go back up and become a problem if they had already been down at birth. i thought it was only a problem if they never came down on their own—-but really i don’t know alot about this subject, i’m only talking off the top of my head.

[Anonymous]

That’s what confused me, too. I thought that if they were descended at birth, all was well.

I’ll look more closely when he’s in the tub and see if they come down or not. I hope they do.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Christine

I remembered i saw a post about this a while back… it was from Robin (RLM426)… her boy had the surgery…. maybe if you post something for her she will see it? Not sure if her email is on her profile — will take a look for you

[Anonymous]

I’m friends with Robin. I’ll e-mail her and ask her to respond.

[Anonymous]

Hi Christine,

At Brodie’s 6 month checkup, the ped. noticed only one testicle in his scrotum. I never noticed since he was my first and I never really examined his scrotum. His ped. felt around his lower abdomen and thought he felt his other testicle in his inguinal canal. So, he said if it doesn’t drop by the time Brodie is one, it most likely won’t drop. So around his first birthday, it hadn’t dropped so we were advised to have an ultrasound done. They claimed they couldn’t find a testicle but that it was hard to really know for sure becasue he was moving around a bit. Anyhow, I went to see a ped. urologist and she didn’t feel a testicle during the examination. Long story short, Brodie was set up for surgery because they had to do exploratory to see if there was a healthy testicle and it could be brought down to the scrotum or if there was a small remnant that never fully formed to a healthy testicle and that would have to be removed becasue it can turn cancerous. So, Brodie’s situation is a little different, but he had the surgery March 1st, 2006 and they removed a small fragment, so he only has one healthy testicle. However, his dr. did say that testis are free moving and they can move around so Myles’ can move around, but they need to ultimately stay in the scrotum. I was told that once they move around like that they usually have to be tacked down (sorry, sounds kind of bad), into the scrotum because it’s too hot for them in the inguinal canal. So, if they don’t descend I imagine Myles will have to have the suregry to move them into the scrotum and then they are tacked down so they can’t move up again. It’s not a pleasant situaiton for anyone, but these kids are pretty resilient! Hopefully Miles’ will descend and stay put on their own. If you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them.

[Anonymous]

Thanks….

Would you believe that today after an entire month of not being able to see his testicals in the scrotom at all, I called my doctor and posted this question….and then he woke from his nap and I changed his diaper and lo and behold….there they were, right where they should be!! These babies! They sure know how to make their mommy’s a neurotic mess.

Anyway, I still wonder why his testicals spend so much time up instead of down. (They were up again later when I got him ready for bed). My husband says he’s cold, or stressed. I don’t think it’s that cold in this house, and God help this kid if he’s that stressed!!

Any ideas?? Is this normal?? DH says if they come down at all, he’s fine. Is that true?

[Anonymous]

Oh, Hi Robin. Thanks for your post. I found it after I had already posted again.

So, they shouldn’t go up and down all the time?? Myles’ have been up most of the time for at least the last month.

[Anonymous]

I’m no expert, but from what I understand, no they should not be moving up and down

[Anonymous]

Christine, actually, this is very common in young infant boys.
The testicles go back and forth, up and down and at some point,
the opening in which they go up to the abdomen, closes and they stay
down.

So not all is lost, Miles is just 7 months old (what day, Elijah was 9/10/05).

Elijahs dad had an orchiopecty (the name of the surgery to descend the
testisle) when he was about 10 years old. He had been in an automobile
bicycle accident when he was 8 YO and more than likely that accident
caused the condition. His testicle was up or went up or pushed up and
the body formed what is known as a hydorcele which prevented the
testicle from decending again.

At 10 yo it was a day surgery and he had ice packs for pain. He can take a lot of pain though before he complains.

I’ve been through 7 different surgeries with 4 of my six sons
from ages 8 weeks old (pyloral stenosis) to 12 years old when
David had an artery bypass graft on his right femoral artery (upper
thigh).

All went well with all of the surgeries, no problems, millions of kids
are operated on daily and come through it with flying colors.

I figure if it can be stitched, casted or operated on (non emergency) I don’t sweat it.

Edited to add info and link from the

Medline Medical Encyclopedia

“Undescended
testicles are fairly common in premature infants, and occur in about 3
to 4% of full-term infants. About 65% of the testicles typically
descend by 9 months of age.

Once a testicle has been discovered in the scrotum, it is generally
considered descended, even if it is temporarily retracted on a later
examination. Sometimes a condition (referred to as retractile testes)
will develop, in which the examiner can sometimes locate the testicles
and sometimes not.

This occurs because of the strength
of the muscular reflex (cremasteric reflex) that retracts the testicles
and the small mass of the testicles before puberty. In this instance,
the testicles descend at puberty. This is considered a variant of
normal and surgical correction is not needed.

Testicles that do not descend by one year of age should be carefully
evaluated. The literature suggest that definitive surgery should be
accomplished by this age to confirm diagnosis and to lessen the
likelihood of permanent testicular damage.”

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000973.htm

Elijah’s Grammy2006-4-29 11:31:9

[Anonymous]

Thanks Robin…How’s Brodie now?? How long did it take for him to recover from the surgery?

Thanks Susan…especially for the Medline info. I’m really afraid to research these things on line because I often find so much more to worry about.

We’ll just keep an eye on things and hopefully they will begin to stay down more as he gets older. Hopefully, he will not need surgery, but like you said, babies are resilient and he will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Hi Christine,

Sorry I didn’t respond sooner, but Brodie is fine now. It’s hard to say how much his surgery bothered him because he also had his circumcision fixed (my ob/gyn botched it) and that was the worst of the surgery. He had minimal stitches for the testicle issue. He didn’t like baths for a while and he was oversensitized in his genital area as a result of the surgery, everything was tender. It took about a week for things to improve and then within two – three he was pretty normal. I wouldn’t ever do a circumcision repair again! It seemed barbaric when I saw his penis afterward!

[Anonymous]

Poor little guy Thanks for sharing his experience. Hopefully, Myles won’t need surgery. I saw them this morning again, so they are coming down more. I’m sorry about Brodie’s circumcision. I was so worried about that when Myles had his, that it could go wrong. I hope Brodie is o.k.

[Author]

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