Soft Testicle Implant

Q: Dr. Eppley, about three years ago I had a Mentor Coloplast prosthetic testicular implant put in. It is sooo hard and unnatural feeling. The good news is It isn’t sutured in and I do like having the mobility. I really want to know if they make a softer squisher testicle. I know a prosthetic testicle will never be 100% like the real thing, but this is sometimes causing me pain because it is so rock hard.

A: Saline-filled testicle implants (Mentor Coloplast) are by their very composition hard and quite unlike what a natural testicle feels like. Saline placed inside a silastic silicone shell creates a very firm prosthesis. It is fundamentally a flawed concept for a testicle implant not to mention the risk of deflation and need for eventual replacement. Very soft low durometer silicone testicle implants exist that feel very similar to a natural testicle. They are extremely soft and squishy and have no risk of eventual failure or need for replacement. This is because it is a solid implant material and not a fluid-filled bag.

With an existing testicle implant in place, it would be a straightforward surgery to remove the hard saline implant and replace it with a very soft silicone testicle implant.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana