When should surgery be performed?

There is a debate about the most appropriate age to perform surgery on the penis with hypospadias. It appears that many urologists prefer to perform the surgery when the child is under six months of age. There are plastic surgeons, however, with good records of successful surgery, who wait until the child is three years of age.

The generally accepted view is that there are more complications if the surgery is performed on the adolescent or adult man. This may reflect the fact that after adolescence, males can have strong erections that may disrupt the surgery, even if attempts to moderate these are made through use of drugs.