Q: I am a 22 years old male diagnosed with hydrocoele with septicemia four years back. I underwent a surgery on my right testicle because of fluid accumulation around the right testicle. But after the surgery, the size of my right testicle has reduced considerably. To be precise, it is now one-third the size of my left testicle. Now after four years to surgery, the size of my right testicle has remained constant. There is no pain or any unusual symptom in the right testicle. Does small size of right testicle affect sperm production?

A:It seems your diseased side may have suffered damage during the disease process, called as atrophy. Testis has two functions, producing male hormone, the testosterone, and producing sperms. While even a small testis may produce enough testosterone for male sex functions, production of sperms is a sensitive component and suffers during any insult easily. Beauty of paired organ function is that the counterpart takes over the function easily and covers up the deficiency sufficiently. So, even in an unfortunate event of loss of one of the paired organs, all functions may go on smoothly. If there is still anxiety in your mind, you may have your semen analysis done to put any doubts at rest.