Fertility prospects for children with cryptorchidism.

One hundred forty-five men had undergone surgical correction of cryptorchid testes between 1936 and 1968. Eighty percent of 100 patients with unilateral cryptorchidism and 35% (16/45) of patients with bilateral cryptorchidism had reported fertility after 12 or more years of follow-up. There was no significant difference between the fertility rates of patients treated with or without preoperative human chorionic gonadotropin. These data serve to challenge other published series and the popular assumption that there is an inherent bilateral testicular defect in most patients with unilateral cryptorchidism.