Anarchy

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Classification according to ICD-10
Q55.0 Absence and aplasia of the testicle
- monarchy
ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019)

Anorchia or Anorchidie is an anomaly of the male genitals , in which from birth both testicles are missing or completely inoperative. Depending on the point in time at which the testicle was lost, a more or less pronounced male pseudo- hermaphroditism develops . If the testicle is lost before the 8th week of the fetal, a female differentiation of the sex organs occurs. The loss of testicles before birth after the 8th fetal week leads to a normally developed male genital, but without demonstrable testicular function. The therapy of anorchy consists in establishing the gender role in relation to gender development with corresponding lifelong hormone substitution.

Related diseases are the monorchy (only one testicle) and the extremely rare triorchy (three testicles as a result of the doubling of a testicle anlage).

Almost 200 real cases of the latter have been described worldwide. More often, a supposed third testicle is likely to be benign or malignant tumors or cysts after injuries. From a historical perspective, the triorchy is insofar as Philip the Magnanimous , Landgrave of Hesse and founder of the Philipps University of Marburg , assumed this disease and thus his hypersexuality was justified. He also fathered 19 children. Recently, however, this diagnosis has been increasingly questioned. Philipp probably suffered from a spermatocele , the result of a genital injury that he suffered in his childhood.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Anorchidia or anorchie (vanishing testis syndrome) - www.urologielehrbuch.de
  2. a b Dennis Ballwieser : An Enigmatic Patient: The Secret of the Third Testicle , Spiegel Online, April 6, 2013
  3. Hermann Stutte : A historical case of Triorchie. Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous of Hesse , in: Zeitschrift für Altersforschung 6, Dresden and Leipzig 1952, pp. 349–355.
  4. The Landgrave as a patient ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 390 kB)