ABSTRACT
Cryptorchidism is the most common urologic congenital malformation in males which contributed to increasing male infertility and testicular tumors. So, it seems to be necessary to identify its risk factors. Being a case-control study, the investigation consists of 37 cases of cryptorchid boys and 40 normal boys as the control group. Both cases and controls attended a face to-face interview, using the same questionnaire. The collected information was then analyzed by running a chi-square test using SPSS. We found significant positive associations between cryptorchidism and each of the following variables: hypertension during pregnancy [P=0.0327]; premature birth [P=0.0028]; low birth weight [P=0.0478]; UTI during pregnancy [P=0.0162] and brich presentation [P=0.0302]. However, although some risk factors like maternal age, fever during the first trimester of pregnancy, maternal blood group, cesarean section, being the first-born child of the mother and twins have been reported to cause cryptorchidism, we found no evidence to suggest so. In addition, it was the first time that maternal education and UTI during pregnancy were investigated, too. We concluded a significant positive association between UTI during pregnancy, but did not find any relation between cryptorchidism and maternal education. These findings suggest that not only might cryptorchidism be associated with genetic factors, but also can be increased by environmental factors. In order to arrive at more definite conclusions, further studies are needed to be carried out, in this respect