Has anyone's DH had a varicocele surgically corrected? Some of the things I read, make it sound like a wasted effort, but then others sound promising. A urologist recently told DH that there would definately be an improvement. We will go to the specialist Monday. Any advise?

Also, the urologist said that DH should definately not be taking Clomid (a previous urologist had prescribed it to DH to improve counts and motility). Has anyone else's DH been prescribed CLomid to improve counts and motility, or was the other doc a quack?

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My dh had the varicocele repair surgery on Nov 30, 2007 and he did his first sa post-op yesterday, and we get the reults next Wednesday. So I am not sure if it has improved his numbers or not yet, but I will post as soon as I find out. Like yourself, I really didnt find any research that was too promising. But this was our only problem ttc so I figured it was worth a shot. Also dh's urologist seemed to be very optomitistic that it would help. He said it would improve dh count substaintially (sp). I am eager to see if it helped or not and like I said I will post as soon as I get some numbers. good luck

My Dh had a varicocele repair in August 2004.. he deployed to Iraqi October 2004 so we weren't able to check his count right away.. but we did check it when he got back from Iraqi which was October 2005 and his count was still horrible.. motility horrible.. and morphology horrible..

Unfortunately it didn't do a dang thing for him.. we tried fertility blend but that didn't do anything either.. He never tried clomid.. no one ever mentioned that to him.. so I don't know about that

I know sometimes the varicocele repair works sometimes.. and sometimes it doesn't.. i've heard of success stories...

Good Luck !!

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Thanks for you input... DH seems pretty set on the idea of having it repaired, so I told him its up to him. Is there too much risk associated with the procedure? (I'm sure infection, like any surgery, but any others?) Also, was your DH in much pain afterward? Did he have local or general anesthesia? I would like to know as much about it as possible before the appointment so that I can have questions while we're with the doctor.
tryn4#2 - Hope the results come back with great news for you!!! That would be wonderful if that took care of your problems... Best of Luck! I look forward to hear how it goes!!!

Oatie32 - What type of fertility blend is your DH taking... mine takes Men's Health One-A-Day, Vitamin C, Fish Oil, and a baby aspirin.

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Oatie32 - I just saw your sig that you are due soon!! Congrats and best of Wishes!!! It looks as if the fertility blend may have done the trick for you!!! Did I understand correctly that you're having twins?!?

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DMG05..

We are due in about 5 weeks!! Fertility blend didn't work for us.. Instead we went to a reproductive endocrinologist and had to have IVF w/ ICSI done. Our first attempt worked and that's how we are pregnant.. We are due with # 1 .. We had two embryo's put back but only one took so we are having one little boy !!! The siggy is two different pictures of our little man growing!!

As far as the surgery for the varicocele repair.. My Dh went in early in the morning.. I believe they gave him an epidural.. (gosh its been so long) then they took him back for surgery and he was out in no time. He came home that same afternoon with hardly any pain. He was given prescription pain medication but never took it. He just relaxed on the couch for a while.. So, it was a cinch for him !!


HTH

Good Luck to you !!!

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My dh went in outpatient surgery. He had an epidural but poor thing he woke up in the middle of it so they had to use general anes. after that. He was in recovery forever it seemed, waiting for the epidural to wear off. He said tha was he worst of it. He did use his pain meds. He had his surgery on friday and the uro told him he could return to work on monday. Except for in his case he does HEAVY lifting at work so he stayed out for 3 weeks. That was totally dh's call. The uro acted like it was minor, he said he went in aboe the muscle so tthe recovery wouldnt be bad. But dh does still have tenderness at the inscison site still. The uro also told dh that he might br a little sore after bc his body would be reabsorbing the blood vessels that he tied off during surgery. But overall it wasnt bad at all. Dh didnt complain at all. And it will be totally worth it if it works. Good luck to you and dh.

Oatie32 - awww... well congrats! I'm so happy for you!!!

We went to see the uro yesterday.... it looks like we are going to try the varicocele embolization first... It seems to be less intensive than the traditional surgery to tie them off. In the embolization, they will go through his artery and insert a spring made out of a styrofoam material into the varicocele which will collapse the varicolcele. This procedure is done in radiology with a local anesthetic. The doctor said that they can see almost immediately if it cuts the blood supply off to the varicocele. If it does not, then DH will have the surgery to tie them off. THe doctor seems to think that this should help us! We're keeping our fingers crossed. The dr. office is supposed to call to schedule the procedure. We keep praying that we will soon have our little miracle!!!

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I'll keep praying for you as well!!

I really hope it does the trick!!

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Thanks! I really appreciate it! The procedure will be Feb 15th

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My husband's urologist said that there is a 40% chance that the varicocele repair would result in pregnancy. Our other option would be IUI. We decided to try the surgery first and see if that works. If not, then we would try IUI in hopes that we would get more quality sperm then we would have if we did IUI before the surgery. Anyone have experiece with IUI?

We have tried IUI once, but without success. We are hoping that after the surgery we will be able to conceive naturally.

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Hi ladies-
I am new to this forum, a girlfriend of mine shot me over here-I usually hang out in another forum-BUTTTTTTtt
My DH just had his varicocile surgery last Monday. His count was low, but his testosterone was low as well.
He was put to sleep and while they were in there they found 2 varicociles. Both of them were removed. My DH laid up on the couch for a few days and then returned to work on Wednesday. He is still sore, but he is able to move and such.
My DH is also on Clomid to stimulate the testosterone. We completely trust our urologist so my DH is taking it for the next 3 months.
He is also taking Fertility Blend and several other vitamins.
He is going to be tested this month to see how his hormones are responding.

I hope this helps some of you.

My dh had surgery to remove his varicocele back in Sept and the poor guy was down for about 2 weeks. Initially he had low count and motility. After the surgery, his motility increased by 60%. We are to have our first IUI this month!

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Best of Luck Becky!!! I hope IUI brings your BFP!!! My DH had no pain, some discomfort, but he was able to get around great afterward. He hasn't had a follow-up sa yet, but we're hoping for a BFP this month (natural cycle). Good Luck!

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Good luck to you too Deanna!

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My husband had surgery on August last year and I only wish we would have informed ourselves a little bit better before hand, the urologist promised us that everything would be fine, since we already had a son he was confident my DH's numbers would be up in no time. Later on we found out that is not even confirmed that varicoseles has nothing to do with low number, long story short and $10,000 lighter we are doing IVF now, so my opinion is bypass the surgery if you can and go straight to IFV.

Hi, chiming in late.

We deal with MF. My DH was dxd with varicocele in 2005. He had good volumes but his motility was 3-5%, with 15% morphology. Volumes were in the 80ks.

We did a bilateral surgery and it just brought our morphology up to about 25% and we did "double" our motility to a whopping 8%.

We would have bypassed this surgery had we done a little more investigation. We held on the the hope it might work for us. It's easy for me to say that now, since we've also gone through IUIs and IVF.

There are better successes with this surgery if the condition isn't as dramatic.

Good luck in your decision!

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Me (34)/DH (32)
TTC #1 since Dec 2004 with MF
2 failed IUIs/1 failed IVF
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- Investigating Domestic Infant Adoption
- Considering IVF #2 in Oct 08

We walk by faith, not by sight. --2 Corinthians 5:7

We have tried IUI before having the surgery but with no success. DH did very well with the varicocele embolization, had very little pain and such. I think we are both glad that we went this route because we would both prefer to conceive naturally if at all possible. We will be trying a few more months on our own before returning to IUI or doing IVF and that's is only because of my health issues. I think it is a personal decision that has to be made.

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Totally agree! Best of luck!

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Me (34)/DH (32)
TTC #1 since Dec 2004 with MF
2 failed IUIs/1 failed IVF
-----------------------------------------------
- Investigating Domestic Infant Adoption
- Considering IVF #2 in Oct 08

We walk by faith, not by sight. --2 Corinthians 5:7