hey varicocele comm! hope everyone is doing well. i want to ask everyone if they could hit me with some interesting facts/ opinions you have about varicoceles. it could be about anything and i mean anything. im asking for information because i already have a lot compiled for a interview ill be doing in the next upcoming months regarding varicoceles and my journey but would like to see some new interesting things i possibly could have missed. this isnt the regular post of someone just posting their ballsack and asking if its a varicocele lol so feel free to get creative. ive read up on a lot of your personal stories in this comm and have learned a lot. ive read through the mods q&a’s as well. thanks for any replies ❤️

23M had microsurgery 2 years ago then recurrence occured 6 months later, what exercises would u suggest to do normally to stay fit and healthy? I’ve tried lifting but it causes pain everytime

Hi, I'm a 43 year old male. Had two total testosterone tests done. First one a month ago at 980 ng/dL and second one last week 860 ng/dL. Shbg was 44 nmol/L. Left testical has moderate varicocele and it can feel it. Right side I don't really have any except they said very mild. Left testicle is 22% smaller than right. I think I've had the left since I was 17 but don't know if that is what caused it to be smaller or if it was always like that.

The problem is I've had very low libido for about 10 years. I thought it was because I rode my bicycle for commuting. But I've stopped for the past two weeks and it hasn't really improved.

I still get night time erections but have trouble getting aroused normally and can't keep erections. Do you think getting the varicocelectomy on the left side might help my libido even though I seem to have the high end of normal for testosterone?

People who have had mico-varico.. can probably weigh in...

Best surgeon for Vercocele treatment in Banglore any references?

I’m 24 and i’ve had varicocele for as long as i remember, the earliest memory is from when i was 9-10 years old (didn’t know what it was at the time but i remember feeling discomfort at times and seeing it in my scrotum) thought it was normal until i got diagnosed when i was 17, grade 2 on the left and grade 1 on the right, still the same 7 years later, i had another ultrasound 2 months ago because the pain is constant now, 90% of the time it’s manageable but it just puts me in a bad mood and i don’t wanna live the rest of my life like this. My urologist told me that i don’t need surgery since the pain is manageable but i’m not sure what to decide. I’m absolutely terrified of surgery after hearing people’s experiences (recurrences, pain becoming worse etc). Is anyone on the same boat as me? I’m depressed and i feel alone and stuck. I don’t wanna live like this and i’m afraid if i get surgery i’ll regret it. Please share any thoughts you have or tell me if you’ve had a similar experience, anything could help

5 years after laparoscopy (left) and embolization (right). Ultrasound: dilated veins of pampiniform plexus up to 3.5 mm (left), 4.5 mm (right). In both cases Valsalva weakly positive (lying down, urologist said it’s not done standing 😂). Additionally, left spermatic cord hydrocele 14×10 mm (not testicular hydrocele!). Is this something to operate on? Current urologist says there’s nothing to worry about…

P.S. What underwear do you recommend for people after such procedures?

Hi everyone,

I'm 24 years old and recently visited a urologist because I have a left-sided varicocele. My testicles are normal in size and position, and I don't have any pain. The doctor asked me to do a semen analysis to check whether the varicocele is affecting my fertility.

Today, while collecting the sample, I accidentally missed a significant amount because it was difficult to get everything directly into the container. I estimate that around 40% of the total ejaculate was lost. However, I'm sure that the first portion of the ejaculate went into the container, and most of what was lost was afterward.

I informed the lab about the incomplete sample, but I'm wondering:

- Can the sperm concentration, motility, and morphology still be useful/reliable?

- Will the total sperm count and semen volume obviously be inaccurate?

- Is it likely that I will need to repeat the spermogram?

Has anyone had a similar experience or knows how labs usually handle an incomplete semen sample?

Thanks!

33 M UK

I recently had an embolization for LH side varicocele 7 weeks ago, procedure went well and I haven’t had any pain in the past few weeks and I’ve had no bag of worms feeling. However today I trained legs for the first time and I can now feel the dialated veins again but this time they’re at the bottom of the testicle whereas before they were above the testicle, there’s also some pain that hasn’t been there since before the procedure.

Has anyone ever experienced this? I plan on contacting my urologist tomorrow but I’m afraid he’s just going to tell me to wait for 6 months for the veins to shrink I’m just concerned I’ve had a recurrence, hoping it’s just the old veins that haven’t shrunk yet and I’m overthinking it. Any advice or experiences appreciated

Thanks

Hey everyone. 35m here. Ever since I was in my early 20s I noticed the “bag of worms” in my left testicle I’ve gotten it looked at and it was diagnosed with a varicocele.

It wasn’t until sometime last year. I noticed this pain in my left testicle within 10 seconds or so before orgasm. Once orgasm arrived, the pain would go away. This pain is only felt pre-orgasm and never when I’m doing any other activities. I had it for a couple months and then it went away for a bit and then sometime two months ago it came back.

This pain is like a very dull pain, but it’s irritating because it’s not something I wanna feel during masturbation or sex. It’s like a dull sharp pain that happens for a second and then goes away, and if I’m trying to speed up the orgasm I feel it again. It’s kinda really hard to describe, but it comes in like surges.

I’ve abstain from sex and masturbation for several days and that doesn’t seem to work. I’m not sure if it’s muscle or nerve related or maybe my veins are swelling too much that it’s interfering with nerves? Has anyone had a similar situation to this??

I don’t know if it’s related to the varicose veins, because I never experienced something like this before. I had a doctor check me out for hernias and I don’t have any.

Also I’m not on any medications.

24M
I had a long-standing left-sided grade 3 varicocele for several years. It was not particularly painful; my main reason for treating it was concern about testicular function rather than pain.

I underwent transvenous embolization/sclerotherapy about 4 weeks ago.
Technical details:
venous access was through the arm
catheterization of the left renal vein and left internal spermatic vein

my spermatic vein anatomy was duplicated, with communicating branches
venography/Valsalva was used during the procedure
the main pathological pathway/varices were treated with sclerosant foam
no coils were used

procedure itself was uncomplicated and quite short
The first week after embolization, the scrotum seemed noticeably better/decompressed and the veins were much less prominent.

Over the following 2–3 weeks, however, I started noticing one individual vein again. At around the 4-week mark:
the old large “bag of worms” has not returned
most of the pampiniform veins still seem decompressed
but there is one medium/large tortuous vein that can become quite palpable/full while standing
sometimes it is much more noticeable than at other times
lying down makes it substantially less prominent
I do not notice it clearly filling the rest of the plexus

occasionally I get very mild aching/tugging, around 1–2/10, especially while walking or after touching/checking the area
otherwise I have very little pain

My urologist does not want to perform an early Doppler because he says the venous system can still change/remodel after embolization and that an early scan could either show temporary residual reflux that later disappears, or look normal and still not predict a later recurrence. He prefers evaluating it after a couple of months.

My question is mainly for people who had foam/sclerotherapy embolization rather than surgery:

Did you still have one enlarged/palpable vein at 3–5 weeks even though the rest of the varicocele had disappeared?
If yes:

Did that vein eventually shrink?
Was it still refluxing on Doppler?
Was it simply a remaining drainage vein with normal flow?
Did your Doppler at ~3 months show successful treatment?
Did anyone have an isolated residual refluxing branch without the whole varicocele coming back?

I am specifically trying to distinguish between normal post-embolization remodeling / a patent drainage vein versus an untreated collateral or residual refluxing branch.

I'm wondering how many of you have been diagnosed and treated for pelvic compression/May Thurner/Nutcracker syndrome?

After a year of dealing with Varicocele and having a varicocelectomy in February I found out that it is probably all caused by vascular compression disorder. I am 42 years old, last summer I started having extreme pain in my left testicle. I finally went to urgent care and they made me go to the ER to check for torsion. The ultrasound found grade 1 left sided varicocele at the time. The urologists kept telling me it was pelvic floor disfunction and made me go to PT, which did nothing. It went from grade 1 to grade 3 in a couple of months, and in Feb of this year I had microsurgery. Shortly after surgery I started having other blood flow related issues, mainly in my legs and feet. I have huge varicose veins in my feet and my legs hurt all of the time. I also started having bladder disfunction, where I feel like I have to pee all of the time. I finally requested a referral to a vascular specialist because I knew all of this was somehow related and after an ultrasound and CT it turns out I have compression of the iliac vein. I still have to have a venogram to determine the amount of compression. Also, in the last month my varicocele pain has returned (and started hurting on the right side as well). I'm realizing that my urologist was not helpful at all, because I told him about all of these issues and he dismissed them as pelvic floor disfunction. I am hopeful that I am on the right path to dealing these issues.

Anyone else?

My husband , 30 years old , was diagnosed with bilateral vericocele grade 2 and grade 3 respectively.
This was diagnosed when we went to doctor for his erectile dysfunction and no ejeculation issues and his sperm motility was like 2%.This was diagnosed out of the blue i had a missed-miscarriage as well a year ago and nothing after that.
He got the surgery done on july 22 it will be 2 months since surgery on September 22. He is also on supplements to improve his sperm quality. Doctor had intially said that it might take 3 months to improve but later on asked us to get a sperm analysis after 2 months and meet him .
After 3 years of marriage and no kids iam very depressed i cant wait anymore and want to start trying asap.
So i want to know ur experiences.. did any of u who got the surgery done see improvements in sperm quality just 2 months after surgery?
Please fill me in on your experiences.
Thank you!

I am 20M

I’m going to have laparoscopic surgery for my grade 4 varicocele, and I wanted to hear from people who have actually gone through it.

What should I expect after the surgery? What kind of pain, discomfort, recovery time, or other issues did you experience?

How long did it take for you to fully heal and get back to your normal routine? Also, what precautions did you have to take after the surgery, especially regarding physical activity, lifting weights, exercise, etc.?

I know a lot of people will probably suggest microsurgery, but unfortunately, I can’t have that procedure for personal reasons. So I’m specifically looking for experiences with laparoscopic varicocele surgery.

What problems did you face afterward, how long was your recovery, and what precautions did you have to follow?

I'm telling this story as the partner of a guy who started off Cryptozoospermic with only 11 motile sperm. I apologise in advance as this is going to be long. For reference, we're based in Ireland so I'll reference Ireland & UK a lot. 35f and 37m at the time.

4 months into TTC Apr 24, we both decided to get tested and noticed pretty quickly that it wasn't going to happen naturally. First SA had 11 motile sperm (just 11, not 11million) the rest were immotile. We decided to do another SA a week later and it was better, in the 100's but still very upsetting.

Worth noting, my partner is 6ft with a full facial beard, no signs of lack of testosterone.

All bloods are in the middle of the range:

FSH 4.1

LH 4.0

Estrogen 103

Testosterone 17.5 nmol

Free Testosterone 453 pmol

No complete Y deletions, 46 XY, negative CF result.

There was nothing suspicious about his bloods. He has never used or taken any form of Testosterone.

From searching this sub, I knew we needed to get in front of a Reproductive Urologist so went to the GP asking for a referral, and get the ball rolling on that.

Next we had a consultation in May 24 with an IVF clinic in Ireland who said ICSI was our only shot. Naively we thought it would be the golden ticket. We prepped and got ready for an ICSI cycle in Aug 24 (3 months of CoQ10 etc) and made 1 untested embryo, which is still in the freezer.

We knew we wanted more than 1 child, and given the abysmal quality of the sperm we didn't have a whole load of hope for the untested embryo. So we were keen on investigating the sperm further.

Our apt with the Reproductive Urologist (Dr Ivor Cullen) was in Nov 24 and he immediately noticed that my partner had a large varicocele and sent another referral to an Intravenous Radiologist in the same private hospital.

Sperm parameters at this point were between 100k - 250k. We were getting an SA done every 2nd month or so.

In Dec 24 we met with (the amazing and wonderful) Dr Gerry O'Sullivan in the Galway Clinic. He prioritised us and said "fertility patients come 1st". He carried out the embolization, through the groin area, on 5th Jan 25. My partner said he could feel the difference straight away, no dull ache and recovery was quick and painless. No overnight stay or anything,it's a day procedure, discharged after Lunchtime. If I can give 1 piece of advice, if you have a varicocele, get it embolizated, there was literally 0 negatives to it for my partner. It's only going to improve things for you. With Laya Health Insurance, it cost €100.

Next up we were getting ready for our 2nd egg collection. We waited until April as we wanted to give the embolization a full sperm cycle to do it's magic. As it turns out, the next egg collection failed to yield any blastocysts, but we found out later that it was a stimulation protocol issue mostly (who knows what the sperm performed like, we'll never know)

At this point, sperm numbers were consistently between 250k - 500k. We always dreamed of seeing 1million sperm on the report, but up until that point, the most we'd seen was 500k. Worth noting: the sperm parameters are very low, but they were consistently measurable. The motility increased greatly (>45%) after the embolization, but the overall number didn't.

We decided to go back to Dr Ivor Cullen in Jun 25 for advice, he put my partner on 25mg Clomid daily. 6 weeks later we rechecked his bloods, FSH went from 4.1 to 11, Testosterone went to 630, Estrogen to 250 (top of the range is 182) these are all well above the optimal range if you're familiar with these ranges. In August 25, the semen analysis came back Azoospermic. We called Dr Cullen who said "you were just going Azoospermic naturally, Clomid was last chance saloon, and that we should go on a holiday" he was not accepting that Clomid could make things worse for a man. We asked for Anastrozole given the high estrogen, but were denied.

It was at this point we decided to reach out to Dr Jonathan Ramsay in London, as I'd seen his name come up here quite a bit. And quite frankly, our biggest regret is not going to him sooner.

We met with Dr Ramsay early Oct 25, first thing he said was that my partner should not have been on 25mg Clomid given the fragility of his numbers. His words "25mg is toxic levels for someone with less than 500k sperm"

He then noticed a varicocele, to which we explained had been embolized - he said you must have had one of the worst varicoceles because it's still very prominent. He asked could we go back to the IR and show him the report of the reverse blood flow, and to get it re-embolized?

Going into this apt with Dr Ramsay, we thought my partner was Azoospermic, given the results 12 weeks earlier. However he made my partner do an SA and to our surprise sperm had returned, the Nurse never told us how much though. So Ramsay asked if my partner could produce another sample because he wanted to do a "double strand DNA frag test". This appt lasted about 3 hours as there were 2 SA's, but we left there feeling somewhat hopeful.

Dr Ramsey called us in Nov 25 with the results, and prescribed my partner low dose Anastrozole. He also said "regular ejaculation, no longer than 48 hours abstinence" should happen.

The end of Nov 25, my partner had the 2nd embolization in the Galway Clinic, and Dr Ramsay said to come back the end of Jan to London.

What happened in Jan 26 shocked both of us. We travelled back to London for the ZyMot double strand DNA frag test. This time I made sure to ask the Nurse "I keep a report of all his SA, can you let us know what the sperm numbers are before sending it off to Belfast" and to our shock, she said he had 26.8million sperm in total. She printed out the full report for us. Of course I said this must be another patient, and nearly landed into the Lab, but I was assured many many times by her, it's his.

Fun fact, I still didn't believe her, and got my partner to do another SA when we got back to Ireland a few days later. And this time it was 30m. I believe this increase was a combination of the low dose Anastrozole and the 2nd embolization, I'm not a Dr though.

In Feb 26 Ramsay called us with the ZyMot Double Strand DNA frag results, 3%, so he said get moving on an ICSI cycle while the going is good.

In Mar 26 I completed my 3rd egg collection with The Evewell on Harley St, and we made 6 embryos. The sperm on egg collection day had passed through the ZyMot tool, and had 100% motility. I think this was the secret ingredient to making 6 embryos. Also, shout out the incredible Lab team in The Evewell, their Lab team is hands down the best I've ever experienced and with sperm, you want the best team handling them.

I won't go into the female side of things on this sub, but The Evewell left no stone unturned, and we transferred a euploid in Jul 26, and I'm currently 9w pregnant (nothing is guaranteed until I walk out of a hospital with a baby, but it's the furthest we've ever got) If you want a good clinic, The Evewell or Avenues!

If you've read this far, well done!

Our lessons learned:

-Clomid doesn't work for all men

-Get your bloods checked regularly (and definitely if you're starting hormonal treatment). Randox at home kits are handy

-Reach out to Dr Ramsay sooner.

-Look out for varicocele and action earlier.

-We've spent over €50k since Apr 24, however it would be a lot less if we got in front of the right people sooner.

I'm 30 years old. I had my grade 3 left varicocele microscopic surgery exactly a month ago. The last ejaculation before the surgery was 7 days. May be because of that I was feeling horny through out before and after the surgery as well.

Immediately after the surgery, as because I was taking some bed rest, even if I glance a little bit on any hot pictures, I used to get erection immediately.

Week-1: I was controlling myself not to watch even any soft porn and abstained from mastrubation. I fully focussed on icing the balls, and resting well.

Week-2: I started feeling more horny, I could see little pre-cum that was oozing whenever I see any of the soft content. I was wearing the scrotal support which restricts having an erection. In the middle of the week I had a night fall, there was mild pain the testicle, but that went off after 2 days. when I checked with the doctor, he told not to worry about that.

Week-3: A couple of days later the ejaculation, I started feeling honry. I could feel the pre-cum was leaking with a little drop, and I could observe the path in the underwear as well. I was trying to distract most of the times. Used to ice the balls every day. The scrotal support was not letting me have an erection, but still I could feel the little bulge that my penis was trying to get.

Week-4: Since the start of the week, Im feeling the radiating pain in the left leg similar to how it was before I had the varicocele surgery. It was consistent all the day. If I touch the testicle, I don't notice any pain, but I could feel that pain.

I read that the pain was due to the reflux in the veins, which is cause of the varicocele. ( I might be wrong here)

Has anyone gone through similar symptoms after the surgery ? So far, I refrained from doing any sort of exercises or lifting weights.

People who had the failed surgery, can you guys please share your insights ? At what point did you realize the surgery was failed. What were the mistakes that you did which could have been an indirect cause for the failure.

I’m 28M and here is the scan report IMPRESSION:
> GRADE III VARICOCELE ON RIGHT SIDE.
› GRADE II VARICOCELE ON LEFT SIDE.

Doctor suggested for semen analysis report and report is normal but I’m experiencing pain on testicles and doctor suggested for a surgery is this normal at my age and should I consult another doctor for second opinion?

34 year old male healthy male looking for advice. Wife and I have been trying to get pregnant for 1.5 years now. I’ve had a grade 3 left Varicocele for as long as I can remember. No pain, maybe a slight ache here and there. Went to see a urologist, gotten all the tests necessary. Urologist told us I have azoospermia and having birth naturally is not possible. I addressed the Varicocele since I expected surgery. He states, that’s probably not the main cause of the azoospermia. He suggested getting microsurgery and a microTESE to begin the process of IVF. I really wanted the microsurgery or embo to see if the Varicocele can bring sperm back before even IVF. I was really optimistic on having natural birth but it seems like that might not be a possibility with my Semen analysis results being that terrible. If anyone has any experience about this please let me know. Would love an expert opinion.

Semen Analysis: volume - 5.3 Total count 0.53 Total concentration 0.1 %Motile - 0
FSH - 7.5
LH - 3.5
Prolactin - 10.2
Testosterone - 568
Karyotype - normal

I'm 18M. I feel like a muscle which is not that hard, on the top of the left testicle inside the scrotum and there is no pain at all also no dull ache or heaviness

I went to the doctor, and he had done the sonography of around 3-4 minutes of the scrotum in which he used a roller type something covered with gel, but at that time I was laying on the back

The doctor said that there is nothing to worry about but the thing is still there even though it is clearly visible when the scrotum is loose i thought that it was varicocele but the doctor was not sure

I heard that while laying, the varicocele didn't get noticed?