[Paul]

I am 19 years old and three weeks ago I was diagnosed with bilateral varicocele and doctor advised me to to have a semen analysis done. I got the results two days ago and here are the results:

Amount: 4.0 cc
Color: Opaque Gray
p.H: 8.5 (Alkaline)
Liquefaction: 30 minutes
Viscosity: slightly viscid
Normal Morpholgy: 80%
Sperm Motility: Rapid Progressive- 60%
Slow Progressive- 15%
Non-progressive w/ occasional lateral movement - 10%
Overall Motility: 85%
Sperm Concentration: 35 million/ml
Total Sperm Concentration: 140 million/ejaculate

With these results should i still undergo the surgery. im worried that the operation might do more damage than it might help. pls. help. i need advice from you guys. i want to have kids. thanks in advance.

[mgmsrk]

Your counts don’t look that bad. Is it possible that the varicocele will worsen with out the surgery?

I would advise my husband against a surgery with those counts unless it would worsen.

[elaine123]

I think your numbers look good, too. If you're actively trying to get pg, I'd talk to your doc about an IUI. Since your counts are on the lower side I'm sure you and your partner would be a candidate. But if you're not even trying yet, I wouldn't worry about it now.

[Kris79]

It's good to be aware of this as it could cause trouble conceiving, and knowing could save you months of wondering if your partner can get pregnant. I think your numbers seem high enough to have success through IUI...I don't know enough to know if you'd have much success naturally. I think your numbers are on the high side of low. I'm not sure if varicoceles worsen the longer you have them or if they can kill off sperm all together. I know my husband has a zero count and a suspected varicocele, but I think he may have some other issues (possibly hormonal or chromosomal) at the root of his zero sperm count. Best of luck to you!

[michelle15025]

Having surgery can be a tough decision for anyone. my husband has the same problem. He has been doing some reasearch on the web and we feel that being informed is the most important thing when deciding when to have suregery. home is a good place to research when deciding. my husband found it one night and we reference it from time to time.

[bloke]

I'm in the UK. As I'm sure you're aware, healthcare is state-provided here, but there has to be evidence that a procedure affects "take home baby rate".

I have a "small" varicocoele and low counts. My consultant told me that there is not great evidence that having it repaired would make a difference to our situation; the potential benefit is largely theoretical and journal articles give mixed results. I could have pushed for it, but decided to take his advice.

Why not ask your doctor what the evidence is for benefit from surgery?

[prayingforjustone]

Hey Paul,

Generally, the only time you would need to get a varicocele repaired is if your counts are low. From the looks of it, you have excellent Counts, Motility and Morphology. There are a lot of guys who have varococeles that have perfectly normal counts, and it looks like you are one of them. The surgery isn't needed.

For me, my counts we low, and I have the surgery this past January, and it seems to have really helped. Good luck bud!

[NateB]

I agree with the other posters, it seems like your count, motility and morphology are good enough to not warrant surgery. It's not exactly the most pleasant thing to deal with if you were to decide for it.

[maxie03]

Hi, my husband just had the surgery a week ago. It was a really quick surgery and we have already seen benefits. The doctor thought that my husband only had a low grade vericosele but once he got in there it was significantly larger than he had thought. The recovery has been a bit worse than my husband had hoped, but he is doing well. His morphology was much lower than yours - 4% in March and 9% in July - on the scale that needs the percentage to be 14% to be normal. For us this was the first step because our insurance paid for the surgery because in was from a urologists office and they wont pay for anything that is for infertility. We want more than one child so we decided to do the surgery to hopefully fix the problem. From our experience my husbands vericosele did worsen as he got older, it got larger and more painful. I would talk to your partner and really decided what is best for you. For us this was our best first option. Hope that helps!