Spontaneous alterations in position of the testes.

Abstract

The treatment of undescended testes in infancy and childhood, and the timing of treatment have been reviewed recently by Johnston (1965) and by the Brit. med. J. (1965). From a practical point of view, it is important to know, (1) the incidence of undescended testes in the newbom, and (2) the spontaneous alterations in position of the testes during infancy and childhood. With regard to the first of these questions, we have reported an incidence of undescended testes at birth of 17% among premature and 1 8% among full-term boys (Buemann, Henriksen, Villumsen, Westh, and Zachau-Christiansen, 1961). These figures are similar to those reported by Scorer (1957).The aim of the present paper is to report spontaneous alterations in the position of testes, during the first 3 years of life, among 4,500 boys who are included in the Copenhagen University Hospital investigation of the influence of pregnancy and delivery upon the health and development of the child. MethodThe children were examined by a paediatrician on the first and fifth day of life. At the age of 1 and 3 years, they were invited for a re-examination in the hospital's out-patient clinic. Of the boys, 67% were seen at the 1-year examination, and about 50% at the 3-year examination. Only those boys who were thus examined are included in this study.Only after a painstaking attempt to get a testis which was not immediately palpable down into the scrotum was it considered to be undescended.

Male infertility: Pathogenesis and clinical diagnosis

“…[27][28][29] However, cryptorchidism is found not only as a congenital disorder, but also as an acquired disorder diagnosed during infancy and childhood. 29,30 The so called "acquired cryptorchidism" is defined as the ascent of the testis into a cryptorchid position after normal scrotal position at birth and its cumulative incidence by age 24 months can be even higher than that observed at birth (in the UK congenital forms have a prevalence of 5.7% while "acquired" forms 7%). 31 The interaction of genetic and environmental (mainly endocrine disrupters) factors acting on the fetal testis has been proposed as the major determinant of the progressive increase during the past 50 years of pathologies such as cryptorchidism, testis cancer, hypospadia and impaired spermatogenesis in Western countries.…”

The p53/Retinoblastoma-mediated Repression of Testicular Orphan Receptor-2 in the Rhesus Monkey with Cryptorchidism

“…2 We also demonstrated that the HPV-16 gene products E6/E7 could regulate TR2 expression presumably through modulation of p53 and Rb expression or function. E6 functions to bind and degrade p53, whereas E7 can bind and inactivate Rb (39).…”

“…This decrease of a few degrees in the scrotum is believed to contribute to an optimal environment for testes function. Cryptorchidism, the failure of the testes to descend into the scrotum at birth, affects 1% of newborn boys in the United States (2) and reports suggest that the worldwide incidence is rising (3). The subsequent infertility associated with cryptorchidism is attributed to testicular suprascrotal temperature, because in situ cooling of abdominal testes in dogs and pigs results in normal spermatogenesis (4,5).…”

The value of England and Wales congenital malformation notification scheme data for epidemiology: male genital tract malformations.

“…This may well have applied particularly to cryptorchidism and hydrocoele and, for cryptorchidism at least, may have been biased by birthweight since postnatal spontaneous descent of cryptorchid testes occurs more frequently in low than in high birthweight babies. '0 26 A malformation might not be reported because it was felt to be trivial. This would probably occur particularly in very ill babies, including babies of low birthweight needing intensive care, and thus might be biased by birthweight.…”