Ok, time after time I see stories with the protagonist whose "balls haven't dropped yet" and that either say outright, or strongly imply that they do so at puberty.
As someone born male, this always bugged me. Because I clearly recall mine being there as far back as second or third grade. Let's just say it involved a stupid dare, ok?
So I finally did some digging on medical sites.
Guess what? They normally "drop" sometime before *birth*.
Undescended testicles is a problem the doctor should have noticed before the kid could crawl.
It's considered fairly serious too.
Mind you, I'm sure a lot of doctors *don't* check unless there's so reason to be doubtful about the baby's gender.
Even so, balls "dropping" at puberty is a *myth* (unless you are a guevodoce).
I can only chalk it up to being yet another case of adults somehow failing to remember things about their childhood.
Comments
I had surgery at the age of eight to correct this condition
When I was eight years old, a standard examination at the nurses office detected that my testicles hadn't descended, and underwent surgery to correct this.
At that time, I didn't fully understand what that meant. I have later in life often wondered if that "condition" was/is part of how I feel today, and how I identify genderwise, and how that surgery has impacted my life.
Reassuring to Hear That...
I'd wondered whether I was misunderstanding the stories or something. They were in my scrotal sac as far back as I can remember -- they reminded me of apricot pits -- and I'd always assumed they'd been there since birth. I think they got lower in the sac as they grew at puberty; I'd wondered at first if that was what the stories meant.
Eric
Thank you for this post!
Many long years of wondering exactly what was going on with so many characters in T stories, and now you've resolved it. The truth shall indeed set us free! :-)
And sometimes
That being the normal case, not all do or some never do. I have a friend who is 48 and has helped bring 6 children into the world who's "balls" have still not dropped. Mind you my friend is also inter-sexed and it took lots of lots of fertility drugs to aid the wives to become pregnant. Now after all these years the feminine has come to the fore and transition is near complete.
Dahlia
Times Square
Everyone knows that the ball drops at midnight new years eve in Times Square!
Every day!
I know another one that drops EVERY DAY at noon. What kind of condition is that?
Aged three or four I had a
Aged three or four I had a preschool medical where they checked they had dropped (yes).
As the pre-leaving school medical (age fifteen or sixteen) came up there were rumours they would check again. I didn't believe they would do it at three and fifteen (and I was first in the alphabet so didn't get to hear from the guys before me) otherwise I'd have tucked them back inside and joked the docs.
Turns out they can come down and then go back up and get stuck later, so checking at three and fifteen does make some sense.