Late Undescended Testicle Surgery

[LaurenMomof2]

Has anyone's LO had surgery for undescended testicles late? Jack is 3 and it was missed at his 2 year appointment and the doctor is concerned. It normally should be done between the age of 2 and 3. I'm so scared my boy is going to have fertility issues later in life because this was missed.

Also, if your kids have had the surgery, how is the recovery?

[LaurenMomof2]

Anyone?

[sparks3]

No experience with this, Lauren, but thinking of you and sweet Jack.

[LaurenMomof2]

No experience with this, Lauren, but thinking of you and sweet Jack.

Thanks friend.

[BrandiB]

No experience either. Hope it goes smooth though and causes no issues.

[ktacserv]

I wanted to respond to you because my husband had this exact thing happened to him as a child. His undescended was missed until he was five - corrected via surgery when he was 5, and again when he was six. (The first surgery was not successful, as the testicles went back up again afterwards.)

My husband is in his mid-30's, so keep in mind that surgical techniques have probably advanced a lot since then.

I don't want to scare you, but my husband does remember the pain from the surgery. He said it wasn't horrible or anything, but definitely uncomfortable. Perhaps you can speak with your sons doctor about pain relief that he can have once the surgery is over. My husbands second surgery was not laproscopic (I believe that's how they do them these days) and I believe that is why he had the pain. He still has the scars from the surgery to this day.

Back then, his doctors did say there was a chance that it could affect his fertility. He never had a fertility test done because at the time that I met him, it was never a concern of his (we were just out of college and not thinking about children at that time). He did tell me about his surgery though and his uncertainty of his fertility when we got serious with each other - but I figured we would deal with any testing later when we got to that point, and do whatever we needed to do. I loved him anyway, even if he was infertile.

Before we ever got a chance to get the testing done, we got pregnant with our first son Jacob completely by surprise. I was actually on birth control and we thought that coupled with his probable infertility we were being extra careful. Well, clearly he was not infertile! To top it off, we got pregnant again with Natalie shortly afterwards, again while I was on birth control.

So - apparently the botched surgeries and late discovery of his problem never had any lasting ill-effects for him. We never went and had any fertility testing or sperm counts done for him after that - we are now done having children so it was never an issue for us.

The only thing that has changed, from a "normal" guy, is that as an adult my husband keeps regularly yearly appointments with a urologist to make sure he does not develop testicular cancer (tests are done via blood work and ultrasound) as we were told there was a slightly increased risk that he could develop it due to his problems as a child.

I hope this information helps.

[runningmomofmany]

I don't have personal experience with this, but my friend's son had the surgery done when he was 5, I think, possibly 6. They knew about the undescended testicle and deliberately waited to have the surgery. I don't know the reason behind the waiting, and I didn't know there were risks with waiting, they never mentioned that at all. He had something else corrected at the same time (forget what it is called, where the opening of the urethra is on the underside of the penis) and a circumscision. I don't know the close details of his recovery, but I would have heard if it had been difficult.

[LaurenMomof2]

Thanks so much for your response ladies! I can't imagine that it would be a very comfortable surgery, but definitely a necessary one. I'm not looking forward to it, but hopefully we can get it taken care of after the 1st of the year when we have an appointment with our urologist.

[V]

Hi

My son had his done at age 2 (in two stages as it was very far up), no probs with first op but there were complications with the second op (they tried keyhole first but had to do open surgery in the end) and he was covered in stitches and bruising all over his delicates... it didn't bother him at all after the first 24 hrs. No problems moving, changing nappy etc. Took a while to heal as they do such a neat incisions so the scars are barely visible in the creases, but no problems at all in himself. Looks worse than it is!

Hope your son recovers just as well...even quicker if they can do the entire procedure via keyhole as normal

[Ourou]

I'm kinda hesitant to respond, because it might not be reassuring. My husband had surgery for an undescended testicle at around 7, and we are struggling with severe male-factor infertility now. However, none of the doctors we've seen have ever made a big deal out of the surgery, or said they think it is the cause. *shrug*. Also, boys have two of the things, so the second one should be just fine no matter what, right?

DH apparently woke up from the anaesthetic swearing like a sailor. . . its a bit of a family joke actually because he is usually very mild mannered. He does remember it being quite painful at first, but that was 25 years ago, so procedures and pain killers may have changed.

Hope that wasn't too scary. Wishing you and Jack the very best!

[V]

Re. Fertility. I was told by the dr that it does not appear the testicle will produce sperm but may produce some additional male hormones. the op was done to reduce risk of testicular cancer later in life and cosmetic reasons only. I was reassured it will not effect his fertility later on as his other one should produce normal sperm in sufficient quantities to achieve pregnancy. That said, i was told the later the op, the greater the risk to fertility problems, not sure why, but it does seem the older boys (5+) experienced more problems at the time and later on. I suggest getting it done asap.

[haydensmom]

Hayden (6.5) just had this done on the 18th. He also had a hernia repair. He was sore for a couple of days but that was mostly due to the tape from the pressure dressing on his belly. Now he's totally back to normal. He never complained about his incision from the testicle location. Hopefully it doesn't go back up!!! It was outpatient so he came right home with us when he woke up.