Can you wait to treat undescended testes? if so, how long?

Earlier the better: We recommend fixing these before 2 years of age to maximize the benefit of the surgery (reducing risk of testicular cancer long term and reducing risk of infertility from that associated testicle).

By age 2: True undescended testes should be repaired no later than age 2.

Ideally before age 1: The higher the undescended testis, the sooner it should be corrected. Surgery is recommended early because you can already find microscopic changes in atestis after 6 months of age. Pediatric urologists or pedi surgeons are experienced in operating on babies. Best way to know if a boy has un undescended testis is to sit him in warm bath and check to see testis is down. Retractile testes are normal.

Usually 6-12 months: In some cases where the testicle is palpable in the inguinal region but is not easily delivered into the scrotum, it can be advisable to wait 12 months to see if the testicle will descend normally. For clearly undescended testes, orchidopexy is now performed at 6-12 months of age.

1 year: Approximately 10% of patients may see appreciable descent of undescended testes in the first year of life. Thereafter we tend to recommend surgical repair as they dont descend further by themselves.

Till age-6months.: Undescended testis in a full term, normal birth weight baby should be descended by age-6-months. We now believe these testes should be brought down by age-1-year. Ex-preemies at 1 year. Some testes, thought to be retractile normal testes are later found to be undescended and should be corrected soon after discovery. Non-palpable testis in full-term new born will never spontaneously descend.

6 to 18 months: If a testis is impalpable, then exploration and orchiopexy (repair) is best done around 6 months old. Intra-abdominal testes are harder to mobilize to the scrotum in older children. If the testis is palpable, most specialists agree that orchiopexy around one year of age is the standard.