Hypospadias

[Ltomkins525]

Hello all- my little one was diagnosed with a mild case of hypospadias at birth and I'm hoping to connect with any mums who have been through the surgery with their sons and get some insight on what the experience was pre/post op.

My son's case is mild- with his urethra just below the head of the penis but I'm concerned that post surgery he will still be "different" to his peers when he's older. We will have the surgery when he is between the age of 9-12 months.

For mums that have been through this- did your son have reconstructed foreskin or was he circumsized? Were there any post surgery complications- if so, how far after were they addressed. How is your son now?

Thanks so much

[DeadCert]

Morning,

My son had megaprepuce which is different and causes massive ballooning of the foreskin so he had an op when he was 16 months to correct.

However, my husband had Hyperspadius and had it corrected when he was about 5 I think, he's a 70's baby though and from what I he been told by my husband and MIL, at the time they were keen to just leave it. The doctors are quite interested in the link between my husband and son so I know a reasonable amount about hyperspadius. From what I can gather, his foreskin was sot of laying across the penis and didn't join underneath, my husbands uretha is on the underside of his penis at the top end though, I know some cases can be severe and the uretha opening can be very low down the shaft - where is your sons? He also had twisted tubes which I'm not sure if that is part of hyperspadius or another issue, but apart from not being able to wee in a particularly straight line that hasn't caused him any issue either.

My husband was circumcised as part of the corrective surgery and it has caused him absolutely no issues whatsoever, in terms of relationships, fertility or confidence. If you look very, very carefully at his penis there is some scarring around the tip but to be absolutely honest, I had to have the scarring and his uretha position pointed out to me when we got together, it wasn't something I would have noticed. All willies look quite different don't they?

Now my son is circumcised and my husband is, I definitely see the benefits in terms of hygiene and would almost be tempted to circumcise another boy if it wasn't for the surgery. Surgery can be scary when they're little but the hospitals are great at dealing with little ones, he'll largely be unaware. The healing is very quick from it too.

Is it causing him much bother at the moment?

[DeadCert]

Ah, just re-read, sounds very similar to my husbands positioning, honestly it will be fine.

[Ltomkins525]

Thank you DeadCert- that is very reassuring. Thankfully, it's not causing him any discomfort at all and yes, it does sound like it is very similar to your husbands. Babies are so resilient- we go back to the specialist when he is 6 months old to discuss surgery specifics- they said they can reconstruct the foreskin but most often will perform a circumcision.

How was your little boy following surgery that young?

[DeadCert]

Absolutely fine, better than me! He was treated as an out patient, they just prescribed calpol as pain relief. Stitches were dissolvable and we just focused on keeping the area cleans and not having too long baths until the stitches had gone. We put loads of Vaseline on the inside of his nappy to stop the nappy sticking to the wound but honestly, he was fine. The surgery was not nice but quickly over with.

It's great that his uretha isn't too far down, it really won't hinder him in any way. You have to consider as well, how many people will actually see his penis up close in his lifetime, all he'll look like is a circumcised boy which is really quite normal. My son still needs corrective cosmetic surgery to remove a lip of skin from his penis so his does still look a bit odd, you won't have that issue I'm sure. You may even find you're happier with the appearance after the surgery.

[ChatEnOeuf]

They use the foreskin for the reconstruction so the appearances are very similar to a circumcision. My ExP had it done as a child and was fine.

[LurcioAgain]

My son was born with mild hypospadias - sounds v. similar to your description. I had the choice between having the urologist operate when he was very young (advantage: too young to really register what was going on, disadvantage: urologists tend to use the whole foreskin as a graft), or the plastic surgeon once he was about 3. I opted for the latter. The op was a success, and they saved most of his foreskin, only using a very small amount for the graft.

He has a shorter than normal foreskin, so seems to get inflammations there quite easily - frequent baths, no soap seems to be the way forward on that one. The post-operative recovery was painful, which was the disadvantage of having it done relatively late (first night in hospital, had to get the on-call paed out to prescribe oral morphine). He came home with his catheter bag about 3 days after the op (I insisted on an extra night in hospital till I was happy they'd got the pain relief under control). It was not a pleasant experience, and a bit of me did wonder (given that it was so mild) whether to get it corrected since at that level it's largely a cosmetic issue, but every male friend I talked to about it said "get it done - he will be teased at school otherwise, and it may affect his sexual self confidence as an adult."