Expert: John Locke - 7/9/2007

Question
Why would a testicle disappear on a man after intercourse?  This happened to my fiance! It still is gone!!!

Answer
Thanks for using AllExperts, Amy. While obviously I cannot dispense medical advice (and I do believe your fiance should see a doctor if it worries him), and I do not know the specifics of your case, I can suggest what may have happened. In men, the testes descend from the abdomen into the scrotum through a path called the inguinal canal; this usually happens during fetal development, though something like 3% of boys are born with undescended testes. The absence of testes in this sense is called cryptorchidism, and may require medical intervention to achieve normal testicular function.

This does not sound like your husband's condition. In some men with fully descended, otherwise normal testes, a particularly strong muscular reflex can cause them to partially withdraw out of the scrotum and into the body. This is an exaggerated version of what the muscle (called the cremaster muscle) normally does: it moves the testicles into and out of the scrotum in response to a cool environment. This eliminates heat loss and promotes the formation of sperm, which would slow down if the testes themselves were allowed to remain in a cold environment. This is a reflex--it is not under voluntary control--and usually causes no problems.

However, as I have said, the reflex may be strong enough in some cases to withdraw the testes mostly from the scrotum or even into the inguinal canal. It may be very hard by touch alone to determine if a testis is simply high in the scrotum or actually in the abdomen. Either case might make you think that the testis disappeared, though it is most certainly still in the body. Regardless, the condition is not threatening to fertility or testicle function (though N.B. I am not a physician!), though a physician can decide what interventions--if any--are appropriate.