Higher than expected prevalence of congenital cryptorchidism in Lithuania: a study of 1204 boys at birth and 1 year follow-up

BACKGROUND: Cryptorchidism at birth is one of the symptoms of testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS). The aim of the study was to detect prevalence of cryptorchidism in Lithuanian newborn boys.

METHODS: A total of 1204 consecutively born boys were examined within the first days after birth in one regional hospital. Boys cryptorchid at birth were reexamined 1 year later.

RESULTS: The prevalence of cryptorchidism at birth was 5.7% (69 cases). Cryptorchidism was associated with low birth weight (P < 0.0001), preterm delivery (P < 0.0001), small gestational weight (P = 0.03) and other congenital abnormalities of genitalia (P = 0.0001). No correlation between cryptorchidism at birth and maternal age, birth order or mode of delivery was demonstrated in this study, but paternal body mass index <20 kg/m2 was found to be a significant risk factor (P = 0.001). The prevalence of congenital cryptorchidism at 1 year of age was 1.4%.

CONCLUSIONS: We detected lower frequency of cryptorchidism at birth in Lithuanian boys than in Danes (9.0%), but higher than in Finns (2.4%). We had expected the frequencies in Lithuania and Finland to be relatively similar because the other symptoms of TDS (incidence of testicular cancer and semen quality) are close in these countries.