Undescended testicle

Diagnosis

To diagnose and address the issue with an undescended testicle, surgery may be required. There are two primary surgical procedures:

• Laparoscopy. Through a little cut in the abdomen, a tube containing a camera is inserted. To detect a testicle in the stomach region, a laparoscopy is performed.

During the procedure, the surgeon might be able to repair the undescended testicle. Yet another operation might be required. Laparoscopy may occasionally fail to detect an undescended testicle. Or the surgeon can detect inoperable or dead testicular tissue and remove it.

• Open surgery. In order to locate the undescended testicle, a bigger cut is used in this procedure.

More tests might be required if a newborn’s testicles cannot be located in the scrotum after birth. These tests can reveal whether the testicles are undescended or missing, which means not present at all. If they are not identified and treated, several medical conditions that cause absent testicles might have serious consequences very soon after birth.

In most cases, imaging tests like an ultrasound and MRI are not required to determine whether a baby has an undescended testicle.

Treatment

The aim of treatment is to reposition the undescended testicle in the scrotum. Treatment before the age of one may reduce the chance of health issues including infertility and testicular cancer associated to an undescended testicle. Early intervention is preferable. Experts frequently advise having the procedure done before the child is 18 months old.

Surgery

The most common treatment for an undescended testicle is surgery. The surgeon carefully repositions the testicle, placing it within the scrotum and securing it in position with sutures. Orchiopexy is the term for this. A tiny cut in the groin, the scrotum, or both can be used for the procedure.

Numerous factors will determine when your kid will have surgery. Several factors are taken into consideration, such as the infant’s condition and the complexity of the procedure, in order to assess the feasibility and difficulty level of the surgical intervention. Your doctor would probably advise having the procedure performed when your infant is between the ages of 6 and 18 months. Early surgical intervention appears to reduce the likelihood of future health issues.

The testicle may occasionally be harmed or composed of dead testicular tissue. This tissue needs to be removed by the surgeon.

Inguinal hernias are treated during surgery if your infant also has one.

Following surgery, the surgeon keeps an eye on the testicle to make sure it develops, functions well, and remains in place. Monitoring could consist of physical assessment, scrotal ultrasound, and hormone level monitoring.

Hormone treatment

Your child receives doses of a hormone known as human chorionic gonadotropin as part of hormone therapy. The testicle may relocate to the scrotum as a result of this. However, hormone therapy is frequently not advised because it is significantly less successful than surgery.

Other treatments

Other therapies might be helpful if your child doesn’t have one or both testicles because one or both are missing or were removed during surgery.

Consider exploring the option of acquiring testicular prostheses for your child, as these synthetic implants can help restore a natural appearance to the scrotum. They are surgically implanted in the scrotum. After puberty or at least six months after a scrotum operation, they can be implanted.

You can be directed to an endocrinologist, a hormone specialist, if your child doesn’t have at least one healthy testicle. You two can discuss potential hormone therapies that would be required to induce puberty and physical maturation.

Results

The most frequent procedure to correct one undescended testicle is orchiopexy. It is almost always successful. Most of the time, after surgery for a single undescended testicle, the chance of fertility issues disappears. Surgical intervention for two undescended testicles may result in a comparatively lesser degree of improvement. Additionally, surgery may lessen the chance of testicular cancer, but it does not eliminate it.