Hello, everyone, and welcome to our ongoing fertility saga. About 5 yrs ago, DH was diagnosed with a varicocele on his left side, was told that it was pretty bad and we'd probably never have children. Since then, we have gotten pregnant naturally (mc), and have gone through one round of IUI, unfortunately unsuccessful. His SA at the time was pretty bad, and after the IUI, our DR recommended IVF.
Yesterday, DH went to his urologist for the varicocle, as he was having pains off and on, and while we were there, we though we'd ask if he was a candidate for repair, and would it improve his fertility. However, we were told that no varicocele could be felt, but there is a small cyst on the left side of the epididymus, which would explain the pain, but it does not cause infertilty. In fact, other than draining the cyst if it gets bigger, and talking Tylenol, there is nothing they can do. If the pain ever gets unbearable, surgery is an option but they usually have to remove the entire epididymus! (They could remove the cyst, but it usually comes right back). Good thing is, these cysts almost never turn cancerous. He has a testicular ultrasound on Monday to confirm the cyst and check for the varicocele.
My questions are: if it takes an ultrasound to find the v'cele, how could it possibly be causing the MF infertility? And has anyone else's DH had this happen? All this time, I thought, well, we'll get the v'cele fixed and hopefully it will improve things at least a little bit. Now there may not even be one!! I have mild PCOS, so its been an uphill battle all the way for us.
Any insight on this is appreciated. Thanks:-)
----Linda

Hi, and welcome to the board. My DH and I wanted children so the first thing was for him to get check. To make a long story short. His SA came back with 3.5mil sperm and low morphology and motility. (can't remember those numbers). My GYN looked at his numbers and recommended he go see an urologist. The urologist did not feel a varicocele for my DH either. It was found by an ultrasound. After the results from the ultrasound, we found out DH had two varicoceles one on the left and right. The Urologist only recommended surgery for the left. He said that surgery would definitely help his numbers. My GYN said the same as well. My DH had surgery June 4th. We go for another SA on August 18th. We have some ladies on this board that has been through the same thing. Alot have got preggo. Let me know if you have any questions.

I agree... there are varied types/ sizes of varicocele's. The varicocele raises the temperature in the testicles and therefore prevent the sperm from developing properly.

My DH did have a varicocele on the left side. He had the varicocele repaired February 15th. Approximately 3.5 mths after the surgery he had a follow-up s/a which revealed dramatic improvement! Prior to surgery his count was 5 mil with low morphology and motility, post-surgery his count came up to 38 mil with 58% forward progression (over 50 is normal). We conceived the same cycle as his s/a, however it unfortunately ended in m/c.

So to answer your question, if he does have a varicocele, it could very well be the cause of IF and the varicocele repair could be very helpful. Also something that may be helpful with your PCOS is if you did a medicated IUI... I would definately ask questions and possibly see about getting an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist (RE) who could better access your fertility.

Best wishes!

Linda...I forgot to mention this. My DH found out the about the varicocele the beginning of last year. He was afraid to have the surgery and did not want it....anyway his stomach started hurting really bad one night, we went to the emergency room...they explained sometimes the varicocele can cause pain in the stomach. His stomach was swollen also. We mad an appointment with the urologist the next day and explained the pains and how swollen his stomach was, the urologist said it was the varicocele being inflammed that was causing the problems. he gave him some type of antibotic pills to take a month before the surgery. He did not start having pains until May this year and it was off and on. Hope this helps