Ask the Doctor

I am a 47 year old male who was scheduled for a bilateral vasectomy on March 27. Because of an undecended testicle on my left side I was scheduled for outpatient surgery. While under general anesthetic the vasectomy was performed successfully on the right side but my left testicle was to high to perform the vasectomy. My question is “What will be done now to insure that I am not fertile and will a vasectomy be repeated on the left side?” As a sub note I did not have this condition as a young child or man – this has only been as ofthe last 5 – 10 years.

Undescended testicle is a congenital condition. Approximately 3% of boys are born with one or both testicles undescended. The majority of boys will have spontaneous descent of their testicles by the age of one so that only 0.8% of boys will have persistence of this condition and require surgical intervention to replace the testicle in a normal dependent position. Vasectomy can be successfully performed on men with a history of undescended testis. If the procedure can’t be performed in the office then it should be done in the operating room with a general anesthetic. There is no reason why a vasectomy can not be performed in the operating room with anesthesia even in the setting of an undescended testis. Perhaps a second opinion by an experienced vasectomy surgeon would be useful. Some men who have had undescended testis may have an atrophic testicle that produces little or no sperm. However, this testicle may intermittently produce sperm and there is no guarantee that a man is sterile until both sides of the vas deferens have been treated by the vasectomy procedure.