I'd like to tuck, but I have a hydrocele

[Delaney]

I suppose the title gave the main gist.  If you don't know what a hydrocele is, feel free to look it up.

A few years ago I noticed that my left little fella down there didn't really seem so little anymore.  So I got it checked out.  I had an ultrasound and I was confirmed to have a hydrocele, but the size of it was not of any major concern. Visually the two fellas don't look very different, but by feel it's quite obvious. Thusly, surgery was not considered necessary.

Fast forward to the present.  I have come to grips with my dysphoria and am taking the appropriate steps toward transitioning.  Today I decided to make myself a gaff and attempt tucking.  The right fella was no problem, but that left one was somewhat uncomfortable (I wasn't in pain or anything, mind you) and didn't want to stay put.  After a few hours of wearing it, I decided to remove the gaff.  Then the gears in my head started turning.

Could I rupture the hydrocele by tucking?  Should I go ahead and seek surgery for it even though the doctor didn't consider it important?  Or am I realistically safe to tuck?

Oh, and if you had to look up what a hydrocele is, you probably don't have a solid answer for me, haha.

[rachel89]

Orchi? No point in doing surgery on one of the boys to fix something only to have more surgery to remove what was just fixed. Spiro will make the boys non-functioning anyway. Tucking will also be a lot easier.

[rachel89]

How far are you in transition? If you just started don't take my advice, just go to to the doctor to get it treated in the typical manner.

[HughE]

I don't know the answer to your question, however, I was born with a hydrocele too. Mine must have been somewhat worse than yours, because when I was about 10 a loop of intestine forced its way through the gap, creating an inguinal hernia.

Anyway, a hydrocele is one of a number of interrelated conditions, all linked to testicular descent and the channel the testicle descends through (a hydrocele is when that channel fails to close properly afterwards), that are markers of having had abnormally low testosterone, or a period of testosterone suppression, during the later stages of your prenatal development. That would explain your gender dysphoria, since in the absence of testosterone, brain development occurs as female even if you're genetically male.

[Emjay]

Anyway, a hydrocele is one of a number of interrelated conditions, all linked to testicular descent and the channel the testicle descends through (a hydrocele is when that channel fails to close properly afterwards), that are markers of having had abnormally low testosterone, or a period of testosterone suppression, during the later stages of your prenatal development. That would explain your gender dysphoria, since in the absence of testosterone, brain development occurs as female even if you're genetically male.

That could explain a lot!  I also have one though I didn't know the name for it until I read this post.  I remember going to the doctor for it when I was a teen and he said it was some sort of ruptured something or other at the time and not to worry about it.  It never went away.

I can't speak to the risks of tucking but I know for me it's fairly painful to tuck.  As a result, I rarely ever do.  Hopefully it's not too noticeable and I generally opt for longer tops to try and help hide it for now.

[Lady_Oracle]

Yeah I stopped tucking years ago. I don't have a bulge even with tight pants thanks to hrt (testes shrunk). Prehrt tucking was hell but I had to do it since the bulge was pretty visible.

[Delaney]

After doing a bit of research on hydroceles, I don't think I want to have surgery, lol...

Apparently having one can indeed affect T levels.  Surgery can cause the teste to start working better and start producing more T.  Perhaps the hydrocele is to blame for my dysphoria in the first place.  Perhaps it is not.  I just know that my dysphoria is here and I suspect the worst thing that I could do is take an action that increases my T levels.

[Isabelle]

My advice is just have it aspirated/drained. They do it with a needle through a really small incision site. Chances with aspirating are high that it will come back eventually but, having the more permanent surgical option of the actual layer that's holding the fluid being removed, is a more invasive operation, which may leave more scaring on your scrotum. This is bad if you wish to undergo Sex reassignment surgery, because that skin is needed. If your transition includes HRT, your testicles to loose volume, sometimes up to around 20%ish This will make wearing a gaff easier.

[HughE]

Apparently having one can indeed affect T levels.  Surgery can cause the teste to start working better and start producing more T.  Perhaps the hydrocele is to blame for my dysphoria in the first place.  Perhaps it is not.  I just know that my dysphoria is here and I suspect the worst thing that I could do is take an action that increases my T levels.

No, I wasn't saying that it was the cause of you having had a period of very low testosterone during your prenatal development, just that it's a marker that it happened. If you look at this diagram:


You'll see that all the events associated with the formation of male genitals are essentially complete by the end of week 12 after conception (i.e. the end of the first trimester), and the only things still ongoing after that as far as genital development are concerned, are descent of the testicles and "External genital growth" (elongation of the penis). In other words, if you have normal male T levels during the first trimester, but something happens that shuts down your T production during the second and/or third trimester, the only physical evidence that anything went wrong will be abnormalities associated with testicular descent (of which a hydrocele is one), and you could end up with a penis shorter than it otherwise would have been.

The main thing still ongoing as far as development is concerned during the second and third trimester is brain development. Since testosterone must be present in order for male brain development to occur, any interruption to your T production during that time is likely to result in some of your brain development occurring as female instead of male.

In my case, looking at the parts of my personality and behaviour that have been affected, I think the interruption to my T production was during the second trimester only, and I had normal male T levels during the first and third trimesters. It's left me in a situation where I don't really fit in very well as either male or female, instead I'm kind of a mixture of the two. I also developed quite a bad hydrocele on one side only (with otherwise normal male genitals), and have congenital secondary hypogonadism (meaning that there's something wrong with my hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls hormones).

In your case, the period of T suppression was probably longer, and more completely covered the critical period when the brain development responsible for gender identity takes place, hence you've got a gender identity that is more completely female.

[Delaney]

No, I wasn't saying that it was the cause of you having had a period of very low testosterone during your prenatal development, just that it's a marker that it happened. If you look at this diagram:


You'll see that all the events associated with the formation of male genitals are essentially complete by the end of week 12 after conception (i.e. the end of the first trimester), and the only things still ongoing after that as far as genital development are concerned, are descent of the testicles and "External genital growth" (elongation of the penis). In other words, if you have normal male T levels during the first trimester, but something happens that shuts down your T production during the second and/or third trimester, the only physical evidence that anything went wrong will be abnormalities associated with testicular descent (of which a hydrocele is one), and you could end up with a penis shorter than it otherwise would have been.

The main thing still ongoing as far as development is concerned during the second and third trimester is brain development. Since testosterone must be present in order for male brain development to occur, any interruption to your T production during that time is likely to result in some of your brain development occurring as female instead of male.

In my case, looking at the parts of my personality and behaviour that have been affected, I think the interruption to my T production was during the second trimester only, and I had normal male T levels during the first and third trimesters. It's left me in a situation where I don't really fit in very well as either male or female, instead I'm kind of a mixture of the two. I also developed quite a bad hydrocele on one side only (with otherwise normal male genitals), and have congenital secondary hypogonadism (meaning that there's something wrong with my hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls hormones).

In your case, the period of T suppression was probably longer, and more completely covered the critical period when the brain development responsible for gender identity takes place, hence you've got a gender identity that is more completely female.

Ah, I get what you're saying now.  Certainly an interesting thought, although admittedly I am having a hard time finding studies on the subject.