Ever Touched Your Baby Boy’s Balls?

My friend Keisha was born with humour in her lips. Deep dark humour oftentimes but sometimes, just sic wordplay. So when Keisha called me last week to ask if I had ever touched my son’s balls, out of the blues, I immediately knew she was up to something. 

“He only has one. I play with it all the time,” I responded.

She chuckled and went silent. Awfully long and tormenting silence.

“His testicles,” she said, with an unusual seriousness, letting out a deep sigh.

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I know when Keisha is trying to be funny, but everything about this joke, from the content to the delivery, was loudly weird. I buy into humour, but not this incestuous kind. Asking if I have ever touched my two-year-old's testicles is not funny. I would have just hung up, but as an overthinker, I tried figuring out if I had missed the actual joke. I waited for her characteristics chortle of triumph.

Silence...

“What’s with you?” I asked, in my confusion.

“Leakey is going in for surgery to bring down his testicles,” she told me.

Her statement confused me even more. How, for four years, had Keisha failed to know that her son did not have testicles. As if reading my mind, she started explaining.

“He has the scrotum but with nothing inside. It never descended. When you get back home, pull down Shaka’s pants and using your fingers, gently touch his scrotum. You will feel two ‘balls’ inside,” she told me. 

She said it had a medical term she couldn’t remember, snorting loudly now. I have never known how to console humans, sorry just never seems enough to suffice.

Leakey had been having extreme bloats prompting the mother to seek medical attention. It was while examining him that the paediatrician made the diagnosis before recommending imaging to determine where the testicles were as he could not feel them in the boy’s groin.

parental advisory

A deeply unsettling wind of panic hits you as a mother when you think there’s a chance that your child may not be well. So a few minutes to 5 pm, I was out of the door to touch my son’s balls.

At home, I followed Keisha’s instructions and was relieved to feel the ‘balls. Throughout the pre-and post-natal clinics, the subject had never been mentioned.

I called a family doctor, Wilberforce Lusamba to find out more about the condition, its diagnosis, effects and treatment.

Dr Lusamba said an undescended testicle, a condition medically referred to as Cryptorchidism, is generally uncommon but more prevalent among boys born prematurely.

“In the last couple of months of a pregnancy, the foetus goes through many changes like bones forming fully, eyes opening among other changes,” he said.

hidden potential

Testicles, he explained, form in the abdomen during foetal development. During the last months of normal fetal development, they gradually descend from the abdomen through a tube-like passageway in the groin into the scrotum.

“Sometimes however, one or both testicles remain in the abdomen, cryptorchidism, or fall in the groin area but do not get to the scrotum, ectopic testis. The testicles may come down on its own a few months after delivery but if by one year it hasn’t, it is unlikely to correct itself,” he added.

When both testicles are undescended, the scrotum looks flat and smaller than you’d expect it to be. You can also not feel the testicles when you touch them.

Doctor Lusamba explained that a surgery, referred to medically as an orchidopexy; where a small cut is made in the groin and the testicle is brought down into the scrotum, then fixed in place corrects the condition.

ideal four-year window

According to the doctor, in order for testicles to develop and function normally, they need to be slightly cooler than normal body temperature. The scrotum provides this cooler environment. If the condition is not corrected, the child may have some complications in future.

Typically, the orchidopexy surgery should be done before 4 years of age and it is advised to have the baby check-up before one and conduct the procedure as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed.

“Children with undescended testicles that were not corrected or corrected late are at high risk of fertility problems and testicular cancer. The surgery is best done before a child is four years,” he said.

Dr Lusamba urged parents to carefully examine their infants before they hit one year in order to make sure that any conditions are diagnosed early, for both genders. Girls, he said, may be born with vaginal abnormalities where the vagina is closed or absent. 

“Some girls for instance are born with closed vaginal orifice that is often diagnosed late because a parent will assume that the baby is okay since she can pass urine. If you examine and notice that the labia is closed, inform your doctor. It could be a membrane that has blocked the vagina or it may be totally closed and needing surgery to correct,” he warned. 

Some children, he said, are also born with blocked anal openings.

Leakey went through surgery at a specialized hospital in Gilgil and in a week, had recovered fully.

Akello Odenyo

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