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After surgery
After your child has had surgery for an undescended testicle:
- Check the surgical site for signs of infection, such as redness, swelling, pain, or drainage.
- Protect his genital area from injury. Your child should avoid riding toys such as tricycles or bicycles for about 2 weeks. Older boys should avoid games, sports, and rough play in which there is a risk of an injury to the genitals.
- Keep all appointments for follow-up exams so that the doctor can check your child for signs of complications. In rare cases, the testicle will move out of the scrotum again (reascend) after surgery and require further treatment.
Ongoing concerns
Males who have or have had an undescended testicle, even when successfully treated, have an increased risk for infertility.4 If you have an undescended testicle and are concerned about your fertility, talk to your doctor about your options.
Males who have or have had an undescended testicle also have an increased risk for testicular cancer.4 It is important for these males to have regular medical checkups (at least once every 2 years) throughout life. These checkups should include a testicular exam. If you have ever had an undescended testicle, talk to your doctor about how often you need to be checked.
Extra care should also be taken to protect the testicle from injury, such as by always wearing an athletic cup while playing contact supports.
Consult with a doctor if you have had surgery for an undescended testicle and are now considering a vasectomy. Sometimes the surgery for an undescended testicle completely removes a testicle and reimplants it in the scrotum. The surgeon may use the blood vessels that supply the vas deferens to also supply the testicle in its new location. During a vasectomy, the vas deferens is cut, and this could affect blood flow to a reimplanted testicle.
What to think about
If your teenage son has only one testicle, you may want to talk with him about the possibility of getting a testicular prosthesis. The prosthesis helps the scrotum appear and feel normal and may help your son feel better about his body. Whether a prosthesis is necessary for preteen boys is controversial. You and your child will need to decide together how important it is for the boy to have a normal-looking scrotum. If a prosthesis is implanted before puberty, it will need to be replaced later with a larger prosthesis that matches the adult size of the normal testicle.
