DS Has undecended testicles!

[charleepeters]

I took ds for his 9 months check today and he has undecended testicles! the dr said there stuck somewhere between his stomach and his scrotum, she said they may come down by themselvwes if not he ay have to have op! anyone else's ds had this did it work out ok?

apart from that ds is doing well just suprised as nothing was said at his 6 week check!

[frogs]

My ds had this, but it was picked up earlier, at his 6 week check.

Testicles (apparently) can be tricky to detect as sometimes they can do a disappearing act, which may be why it wasn't picked up when he was tiny. Is it one testicle, or both that aren't down? I think we were referred at about 4 months to the surgeon, and they just kept an eye on it every 6 months or so.

If it doesn't come down by itself, the standard age to do the op is about 16 months. Lots do come down by themselves, apparently, but they were pretty sure my ds's wouldn't, as it was stuck somewhere in his abdomen.

The op itself was fine, just day surgery. He had to be fasting , which I thought would be a nightmare, but was actually ok, as he just went very floppy and sleepy, so I could walk up and down with him until it was his turn. They put an anaesthetic gel on the hand before inserting the needle, and I was allowed to stay while they administered the general anaesthetic. Tbh, that was the worst bit, as they look so small and vulnerable when unconscious, and he went a bit blue as well, which is apparently not uncommon.

After the operation he was fine, woke up, downed a bottle of milk and went straight back to sleep. He had one small incision in his abdomen and another in his scrotum. Both were done in a natural skin fold, and are now invisible (he's nearly 6). After the op you have to keep the nappy very loose and not do up vests between the legs. They advise you to keep dosing him with calpol/nurofen to prevent any pain building up, which we did. It was all no problem, frankly we've had worse reactions to vaccinations.

It does seem to be pretty common, and something paediatric surgeons are very used to dealing with.

hth

[Nome]

ds had an undescended testicle. It was still undescended at 6 months so he was booked for surgery at 11 months. That was cancelled and he had the op in the end at 18 months. THe consultant said that there is now research showing that the longer the testicles are left cooking in the abdomen, the more likely they are a) not to work/ be infertile and b) suffer from testicular cancer later in life. He said the sooner the better and definitely by the age of two.

The op ds had sounds just like frogs description.

Your gp sould be refering you back to the hospital for a feel anyway, sometimes they come down on their own, but we were told that if they were coming down on their own it would be happening by 6 months and finished by a year.

There have been a couple other threads on this with more info in the past.

[Monstersmum]

My DS was diagnosed with an undescended testicle last year - he had just turned 3 - felt really guilty it hadn't been picke up before - we live overseas and he hasn't had all his developmental checks.

Anyway - he had it "done" last Wednesday. He is now almost 4. The op itself was fine - the fast was a problem as we were there at 7am and they didn't do him till last - poor thing was even trying to drink water from tap in toilet while washing his hands. All the other kids getting toast and coco pops didn't help matters. He has bounced back really well - although his turned out to be higher than originally thought and is smaller than it should be.

The op is really straight forward so don't worry on that score - but try to make sure your DS gets done earlier than mine. However - they may come down themselves. It does happen apparently.