Abstract

Besides general health check, a group of 3000 twenty-year old military candidates were searched for genital system anomalies in Tokat, between July-August 1994. According to the anomalies found, the treatment they had taken, the age of treatment, the treatment results and their knowledge about the illnesses were investigated.

During the investigation, undescended testis in 20 (0.6%), distal hypospadias in 27 (0.9%), varicocele in 320 (10.6%), and hydrocele in 35 candidates (1.16%) were found. All together, genital system anomalies were found in 402 (13.4%) candidates. Among these, only 47 (11.7%) of them had operations in the past. While none of the 20 candidates who had undescended testis had knowledge about their conditions’ relation to cancer development, only 7 of them had known their conditions’ relation to fertility. 270 (80%) of the 320 candidates who had varicocele were not aware of their illnesses. Among them, 70% did not know varicocele’s relation to infertility. Among the candidates who had hypospadias all were distal hypospadias and 5 were glandular, 11 were coronal and 11 were sub-coronal. All the candidates who had hypospadias were circumcised, they did not have had a surgery before and 21 (77%) of them thought that their conditions were natural and thus they were not aware that they needed a surgical treatment.

Genital system anomalies are the most encountered anomalies seen at birth. Considering that the operation age for undescended testis is brought down to 1 year in the developed countries and the fact that hypospadias should be treated around 1-2 years of age, it is understood that in our country genital system anomalies, like other health issues, aren’t treated on time and public don’t have enough knowledge about this matter.