Partner has varicocele

[jadevv91]

Hi so me and my partner have an almost 4 year old daughter. We started trying pretty much straight away for number two. Last Feb I had a miscarriage after finally falling pregnant..we have had all the tests and my partners 2nd sperm analysis came back as under 1 million when the previous one was 12 mil. Nurse has said it could be that there wasnt enough in the pot so has advised him to take well man for a month then test again. Partner has varicocele could this be why its so low and if he had the embolization is it likely to fix the sperm count?

If not are we going to have to go down the ivf route?

[Hidden]

We had a varicocele and had it removed. As far as I know, it impacts DNA fragmentation not the number of sperm, but the quality.

You should have a DNA fragmentation test and have the varicocele removed to improve your chances.

Best of luck xx

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK]

Hi jadew. Treatment might help to solve the problem, as the varicocele creates heat which as you will probably know is not good for sperm production. Hope it works if he decides to go ahead with it. Diane

[Snez84]

Hi Jadevv91! We’ve just been through very similar. We have a son and started trying for #2 when he was 1. After a year we underwent test and my husbands count was <1mil/ml. He also had a varicocele and has since had this repaired. We don’t know if it’s improved anything as we were part way through our 3rd transfer (which was successful) when he had the op. We were told that as his count was so low the chances were it wouldn’t improve. We haven’t had a semen analysis since although we are planning on doing one soon just to check!

If you’re looking to have the op on the NHS then the waiting time is extremely long and we were told they wouldn’t do the op for fertility reasons, only if it’s causing a huge amount of discomfort. Privately an embolisation costs around £2k+.

I hope you get some answers soon and good luck for your journey xx

[Shirazlover2013]

Hi Jadevv, we’re in the secondary infertility with varicocele boat too and after a 2nd opinion on it (after 4 failed IVF treatments last year) we’re heading down the embolism route. Our issue was originally morphology but count has recently dipped during our 4th ivf cycle. We have a follow up consult with the urologist on Friday this week to see if the recent dna frag and other tests are better or worse than the ones we had done in July (which were borderline normal).

When do you go back to for the 2nd test? It may very well be that it was just a dud sample. Apparently male tests vary A LOT between samples so repeat testing is common. We had 3 in a row to confirm our terrible morphology 2yrs ago. I’m sorry about your miscarriage, such a terrible experience to have to go through. It’s worthwhile getting more information about what’s going on with the sperm before starting ivf. Good luck xx