Cryptorchidism and prepuce are related to the future marriage and fertility of boys. Many people think that from the perspective of parenting alone, boys are better to raise and less troublesome. In fact, there are some things about boys that need parents’ attention from birth.
Ms. Li’s son, Hang Hang, has been behaving abnormally lately, always touching his penis with his hands. The company’s main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the public. Ms. Li observed Hang Hang and found that his penis foreskin was a little long, drooping downward, and usually always stuck together with the small balls. It seems that all little boys’ penises are like this, so there’s nothing wrong with it, right? Ms. Li was worried that there was something wrong with her son’s key parts and decided to take him to the hospital to have a look.
I attended to Hang Hang. He first examined Hang Hang’s little balls carefully with his hands and said to Ms. Li with a smile that the child was not cryptorchid.
Ms. Li was surprised: “I brought my child to see his foreskin, why did I check his balls first?”
I said, “Don’t be anxious. You haven’t taken your child to a doctor for reproductive problems, have you?”
Ms. Li said, “The child is so small, what is there to see? If it weren’t for his long foreskin, he wouldn’t have thought to see a doctor.”
I said, “When a boy is born, he needs to pay attention to two problems: whether he has cryptorchidism or not, and whether he has prepuce or not. These two problems can affect the growth and development of key parts of the child, as well as the happiness of marriage and fertility in adulthood.”
Ms. Li understood what the doctor meant and asked me to check whether her son was circumcised. I checked and said, “It’s prepuce, and it’s best to take care of it as soon as possible.” Since Hang Hang’s foreskin was not badly attached to the glans, it could be peeled off by hand.
Both prepuce and cryptorchidism have quite serious consequences I said that cryptorchidism and prepuce are problems that every boy’s parents should pay attention to as soon as he is born.
Generally speaking, when the mother-to-be is 7 months pregnant, both testicles of the male fetus will descend to the scrotum, and cryptorchidism is when the testicles stop midway in the process of descending and stay in the abdomen or groin, etc. Therefore, as soon as a little boy is born, his parents need to see if he has cryptorchidism. If the child is cryptorchid, it is observed up to 1 year old to see if the testicles can descend to the scrotum, during which time medication can be used to assist in the treatment. If the testicles have not descended to the scrotum by the age of 1 year, surgery should be considered, and the surgery should be performed no later than 3 years old, otherwise the testicular tissue will be destroyed. Sterility will occur in 50% of patients with unilateral cryptorchidism and in 100% of patients with bilateral cryptorchidism. Besides causing infertility, cryptorchidism will also cause cancer.
Circumcision is when the foreskin is too long and adheres to the glans. When a child reaches puberty, the foreskin cannot be turned up automatically, which will affect sexual life in adulthood. Some children are so severely circumcised that the foreskin completely wraps around the glans, exposing only the urethra, which can affect the child’s ability to urinate. Some children’s urine can form stones in the foreskin, which affects urination. Also, foreskin scale is a risk factor for penile cancer.
Speaking of prepuce, Sun Zixue said an interesting phenomenon. Rural children are less circumcised because when they feel itchy or uncomfortable, they will scratch their own penis with their hands, and their parents don’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of, and those children whose foreskin is slightly attached will turn it up by scratching and other actions, so the circumcision is not cured. On the contrary, the city children are more circumcised, the city people are more sophisticated, early to the child wear crotch pants, early to tell the child this place do not touch, see the child play with the penis will think to stop.
A gentle reminder, if parents have difficulty touching their children’s testicles, or find children pee when the penis bulge a small bubble, to promptly seek medical attention.