Long term follow-up study of fertility after orchidopexy in children with cryptorchidism

Abstract

Objective To access the long term fertility after orchidopexy in children with unilateral or bilateral cryptorchidism through analysis of fertility rate and semen evaluation. Methods Between October 1981 and November 1997, totally 342 cases of cryptorchidism underwent orchidopexy procedure in our centre, and the follow up study was conducted. The procreation status among married patients and semen analysis for unmarried patients were targeted to investigate their fertilities. The clinical information was collected through mail, telephone and subsequent visit. Results Complete clinical information could be collected in 49 (14.3％) of all populations, in which unilateral cryptorchidism was found in 33 cases and bilateral ones in 16 cases. Among married patients the fertility rate was 92.9％ in unilateral cases, while 37.5 ％ in bilateral ones. For those patients whose wives gave birth, the mean time of planned pregnancy was 3 months in unilateral cases, and 6.3 months in bilateral ones. While for infertility patients, semen from 4 cases was already normal after drug treatment, in which 3 patients' wives already gave birth. Among unmarried populations, normal rate of semen in unilateral cryptorchidism was 84.2％ and 25％ in bilateral ones. The abdominal cryptorchid could be found in 66.7 percent of in bilateral cryptorchidism with abnormal semen. Conclusions Long term fertility in children with unilateral cryptorchidism is similar with the normal ones, while fertility rate and normal semen in bilateral ones are significantly lower than unilateral ones after surgery. Compared with the unilateral ones, the planned pregnancy time for bilateral ones are long. Part of infertility has fertility potential after drug treatment. The semen in bilateral abdominal cryptorchid is more likely to be abnormal. Key words: Cryptorchidism; Orchidopexy; Semen analysis; Fertility rate