Re:My son’s testicles did not descend, what will need to be done?
Undescended testicles are fairly common, particularly in preterm infants. It occurs in about 3-4 percent of full term infants as well. It occurs because there is a strong cremasteric muscle that sucks the small testicle up into the abdomen. It can also be due to a short cremasteric muscle.
Fortunately about 65 percent of these testicles will descend by the age of 9 months. If the testicles do not descend by the age of one year, surgery is often performed because there can be permanent damage to the testicles and, over time, there will be infertility and an increased risk of testicular cancer.
Some babies are given B-HCG or testosterone to help stimulate the descent of the testes into the scrotum. There are no known risk factors for the development of Undescended testicles and there isn’t anything a woman has done to cause this to happen to their baby son.
What is known, however, is that it needs to be treated, by approximately one year of age, so as to prevent the risk of testicular cancer in the child later in life.
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