CRYPTORCHIDISM. - Failure of one or both testicles to descend, so that they appear absent (χριστός=hidden, ὀργός=testicle); the defect is congenital, often familial and hereditary (frequency 1/100 in adults). The completely ectopic organ is more or less atrophic and always non-functioning with regard to the formation of semen (spermatogenesis), although the interstitial hormonal tissue remains intact and active. Therefore, the bilateral cryptorchid generally presents normal other primary and secondary sexual characteristics and potentia coeundi. According to canon law, he must be considered impotent if incapable of emitting “true semen.”
Depending on the case, surgical intervention, irradiation of the thymus, or organotherapy (anterior pituitary, testicular extracts), carried out at about 8-9 years of age, before the organ has undergone serious alterations, may preserve the physical integrity and spermatogenetic function of the gland.
BBL.: N. Pende, Criptorchidismo, in Enc. Ital., XI (1931), p. 910; M. Messini, Terapia clinica, II, Torino 1944, p. 1748; F. M. Cappello, De matrimonio, 5ª ed., Torino 1947, nn. 348-49. Giuseppe de Nismo