Anyone been through this & can help? xx

 

Hi

Does your hubby have sperm in the semen anaylisis?

My hubby Biopsy on nhs which showed Sertoli cell only. Which apparently you don't produce sperm. Anyway cut long story short we went for second opinion private at Harley street London to mr minhas.

He done testing, ultrasound, bloods. His bloods are normal, ultrasound showed  a varocele in the left testicle.

His semen analysis is sometimes blank and sometimes there sperm but only like 3-4 single sperm.

We have managed to freeze some as I have my egg collection Wednesday. Then if it survives the thawing we will use that plus a fresh on the day. If not he will have a microtese.

We now are not sure whether he has both Sertoli cell only and varoicele or just one. Going to look into that after this icsi is out the way x

 

They will scan to see how big they are, anything around 2mm is 'normal' anything over may cause them to want to treat it. If so, it will be an operation.

You could always go to the GP and request a Seman analysis, and see what his results are now, then if he needs an operation you can request a new seman analysis to see if the operation has helped.

Until he has had a seman analysis, try not to worry. It is a heat source, but it is on only his left side, the rightside should be normal.

If you use the search bar at the top of the index page and type in varicocele you will find some older threads about the topic.

Good luck with it all xx

 

My husband had an undiagnosed varicocele & we did 2 IVF with ICSIs due to sperm problems before we relooked at his records & got him to a urologist. Right away it was clear there was a problem, & this enormous varicocele was causing the sperm to be pretty much entirely mutant, & made the sperm DNA fragmentation & chromatin condensation bad. We scheduled a procedure with a radiologist where they injected dye through a catheter & put stuff in to block the vein ("catheter-directed embolization"). When we did sperm tests about 80 days later, we had a few percent normal sperm, the fragmentation was lesser & the chromatin problem was finally at a level where we would have been able to get pregnant, altho in our case not enough to get pregnant without IVF. The procedure was a bit painful but recovery was quick, & we were able to do an IVF cycle about 3 months afterwards, the only time we did it with "acceptable" sperm. Unfortunately due to cycling probs on my end it was a chemical pregnancy.

Definitely as folks said try to get a sperm analysis done, if possible before you see the urologist so you can discuss the results. Try not to worry too much, see how the sperm results are & see what the urologist says. Varicoceles are usually highly treatable, & varicoceles do not always affect sperm. So get the tests & go from there. If his sperm is fine, you can TTC without problems...

Good luck & post your results/experiences when you can.

 

I'll add my experience for what it's worth.

My husband was diagnosed with a varicocele about 5 years ago, long before we started trying to conceive. He had a sperm test done in March 2011 which was perfectly normal. In July this year we had our first IVF due to not conceiving because of my endometriosis. However, at that appointment we found he had almost 0% normal sperm. He has just been re-tested and now has 1% normal but now a motility problem. We have been referred back to a urologist although the doctor and clinic think a varicocele is not the cause.
It's a mystery how his results have got worse and worse. We are hoping it is the varicocele and not just tough luck!

 

My DH had operation on a variocele this year and his count went from 1 mil to 19 mil at last test

 

Thanks for all your replies!

Quick update...we are STILL waiting to receive a urology appointment, despite the GP requesting an urgent appointment!

We are considering going private - I have posted in the North East forum too, but if anyone here has any experience of a good urologist in the North East, I'd be grateful if you could share their contact details etc?

Thanks,
Vikki x

 

Hi all, we know that my DH has Variococele on the left for sure (apparently very bad!) and possibly on the right too although not confirmed.  Our local urologist was pretty awful (we live abroad) - she said he would never have children without really doing any tests other than an ultrasound & SA.  She didnt know about SSR/TESE/mTese etc etc We are now coming back to the UK to see a private one (Mr Ramsay) on Harley St in Jan who is supposed to be excellent.  Will update once we have seen him.  So far 2 local SA's have showed zero and we are waiting to see what can be done.  There is so much debate about the repair surgery from what I have read.  Locally here they dont do it but I've read in the UK that Urologists are starting to follow the US thinking that the surgery can help so will see!  Just hoping that we can get some of the sucess that so many of the ladies on here have had!!! 

 

I have a friend whose now-husband had sperm surgically removed to use for IVF, as he has some sort of blockage (not a varicocele). He has 2 kids with his former wife from doing that, & then with my friend they did 1 removal operation & froze 4 vials of sperm. They did 2 IVFs with her eggs which turned out to be not great eggs & it didn't work, then their 3rd attempt was IVF with donor eggs & they are about to have a kid. So there can be great success with those sperm removals!!

(Betttymax, one thing I can suggest is trying pentoxifylline + vitamin E for the endometriosis. It's non-hormonal & seems to have helped my endo a lot. Sorry for thread high-jack!)

 

Hello i have recently had a large varicocele removed on my left teste at preston hospital in november the pain has now gone!! the radiologist that removed my varicocele said it will effect my fertility and things should improve over the next 6 months as the varicocele is just blood which heats up the teste and can kill or harm sperm, this seemed logical to me however my doctor at manchester st.marys infertility clinic said that it will have no effect what so ever and there is no link between varicocele's and infertility!! I beg to differ lol i just cant see how it would have no effect what so ever especially with the pain i was in my leg would go numb and my back would hurt and i just would love and honest answer or proof that it could help infertility once a varicocele is removed! I feel for you partner though, its hard to sit down with the varicocele and it does play on your mind because you thing its ruining your chances of becoming a parent! i would love to hear how things go, i had a varicocele embolization is lasted around 40 minutes under local anesthetic and sedation, and was home the same day they put a line into your main artery and feed up another line inside that one and drop little titanium coils off into your damaged vein to clot it up and stop the varicocele from forming as after all a vaircocele happens because of a faulty valve in your vein so the blood drains back into the teste creating a lump!The blood from the testes normally empty into the kidneys and once you have had this surgery the blood just finds a dormant blood vessel or vein and uses that to drain instead! so fingers crossed the valve in that vein is okay! Our treatment is as follows :

Varicocele diagnosed september 2009

First semen analysis JAN 2012

Consultation & blood tests JULY 2012

Pain in varicocele around SEPTEMBER 2012

Varicocele removed NOVEMBER 2012

Consultation and blood test results JAN 2013 (Diagnosed with high testosterone levels)

End of 2013- operation to retreive sperm from teste if possible and proceed with i.v.f!!!