Background: Results of long-term testosterone treatment of congenital hypoplasia of the penis are sparse; the aim of this work was to evaluate these results according to age at onset of treatment, the presence or absence of hypospadias, and its eventual adverse effect upon growth and bone maturation.
Patients and methods: Sixty-six children with congenital hypoplasia of the penis, isolated (n = 31) or associated with a hypospadias (n = 35), were evaluated between 1 day and 16 years of age. The prevalence (40% of the cases) of the different malformations and/or syndromes associated with congenital hypoplasia and its severity were not different whether the penis was isolated or associated with hypospadias (male-pseudohermaphroditism). The effect of the testosterone heptylate (IM) was evaluated in 40 children treated before 10 years of age.
Results: The penis' increase in length was more important in the children with isolated micropenis (+2.1 +/- 0.8 SDS) than those with hypospadias (+1.3 +/- 1.2 SDS) but, in all cases, its increase was better when the treatment was started during the neonatal period, which corresponded to those with the most severe forms of micropenis. A mean regression of the penile volume of -0.7 +/- 0.8 SDS was noticed after the end of each stimulation. No long-term secondary effects related to treatment were seen on later growth and bone-maturation.
Conclusion: Penile length at the last follow-up was not associated with total dose of testosterone but with its length at the first evaluation time (r = 0.52; P = 0.002).