do any parents of ds's check their testicles regularly??

[Twinklebum]

hi i am only asking this as i have never been advised to or shown how to check they are 'down'. At birth all my 3 sons where born with them already decended and were still decended at the 6 week check.

recently my ds has been to the dr re problems with his willy it was then he also checked is balls and discovered that one had moved up and would not stay down. he asked me how long it had been like this and my answer was i really dont know ive never checked.

Am i the only one that didnt know to check they were still where they should be??

nope I dont check either

This is so important - you must check them visually and teach boys to check themselves manually.

We had a similar experience - DSs were definitely 'down' as a baby and recorded as such during his early years health checks.

You don't think about it do you, after that - assume all is OK?

Imagine our horror when at 10 (yes - age 10 years!) DS suddenly said he 'didn't have any balls' (while comparing himself to his well-endowed younger brother.
Turns out his had 're-ascended' - probably during a growth spurt - and we have no idea when (but possibly up to a couple of years previously).

He ended up having surgery to bring them down (10 is v late for this - it's normally done at age 1 ish) and thankfully everything now seems OK. But we won't know until he's an adult whether his fertility has been affected .

Please check your boys.......

i am surprised we are not told this information by the health visitors/nurses. my ds 3.5yo has to have an op in about 6 months (on a waiting list) had he not had to go to the dr for another problem then i'd have been none the wiser.

cornflakemum - how long did it take your ds to recover from the op???

Hi Twinklebum - recovery was pretty fast/good really (and DS had both done, poor soul...)

It was day surgery. Went in at about 8 am He went into surgery at about 9 and was in there for about 1.5 hours, although I'm told it is usually shorter/ easier. He had one testicle which was pretty high up, and 'fiddley' to bring down.
The worst bit was that he was in a lot of pain when he first came out of recovery, so he had to have a shot of pethidine, then he slept for about an hour.
The wounds were so tiny and neat - about 2 cm across his lower abdomen and tiny butterfly strips across his scrotum.

He was discharged about 4 p.m. - after he had successfully wee'd!
Journey home in the car was uncomfortable (take a cushion for him to press against - the seat belt hurts at the wrong point.)

He was pretty uncomfortable for a couple of days and could only walk gingerly like a cowboy, then by Day 3 we managed a short trip out to the shops.

Soft jogging trousers/ shorts were most comfortable.

For the first 2 days he was on 4 hourly calpol/ibuprofen, but was OK without painkillers after that.

No sport for about 4 weeks I think, and no biking for about 6.

Try not to worry - it's actually quite a straightforward op I think - especially if the testicle is close to the scrotum - one of DSs was much higher, which was what made it difficult.

I check DS regulary but only because he has a wonky willy (being operated on this summer :( ) and when he was 8 weeks old (and already in HDU for an unrelated matter!) he developed a hydrocele so i monitor it all.