During his 3 year well check up, the nurse examining my son had trouble locating his testicles. we were referred to a urologist where, after 2 exams and an ultrasound, he was diagnosed with undescended testicles. so i came home and read up as much as i could on the subject. ive learned that true undescended testicles should be diagnosed and treated before the age of 1. he has had 3 different pediatricians because we have had to move and none of them had ever said anything was wrong. now this urologist wants to operate but i do not think its warranted. i am thinking its really retractile testicles, which means they will come down on their own as his cremasteric muscle which pulls the testicles up weakens. i just wanted to know if anyone else had any experience on the subject of either retractile or undescended testicles. thank you.

Hi! My son has an undescended testicle. I would say that the ultrasound should have showed if they were just up somewhere in the abdomen. Have you thought about going to another urologist to get a second opinion or maybe ask for one more ultrasound just to make sure they can't find his testicles up in his belly somewhere. Good luck!

My son has a retractile testicle, I can locate it up in his lower stomach area and when gently pushed it will go back to where it belongs. He has to get a yearly check up with his urologist until he is past puberty. If you aren't sure about the surgery, by all means get a second opinion. Just keep in mind that the longer the testicle is undecended the more likely it is that it will die, so don't put this off for too long.

This also happend to my son but the reason it was undecended was because he had a hernia and the cord for the testicle was wound around the hernia. Also the shape of his testicle is odd. The bottom is concave so it could not stick to the bottom of the sac. Make sure your son does not have a hernia. Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Kimbe (edited 07-16-2003).]

It was noticed that my son had an undecended testicle at the time of his birth. His Pediatrician kept checking it and we were hoping that it would drop on its own. It didn't and at 9 months he was sent to an Urologist (spelling?) who told us that the surgery was better to be done earlier than later. If it wasn't corrected then he would have a much higher chance for testicle cancer as he got older. The surgery was harder on me than on him. It was an outpatient procedure and he was back to his ornery self a few hours after we got home. I'm glad I did it when he was young so he doesn't remember anything.