Varicocele

[Kirstyloop88]

Hi everyone,

We've been ttc over 3 years (MFI) and had a failed icsi cycle (one fresh fail one frozen) with nothing left in the freezer.

We found out my OH had a grade 2 varicocele in his left testicle. The NHS wouldn't operate on it for fertility reasons so we've gone to a private urologist male infertility specialist. Anyway he had a feel and said it was palpable therefore that could mean grade 3. All good for surgery. He wanted another scan just be sure and he found it to be 'mild'

Now I'm paranoid that there were 3 different ideas, grade 2, then 3, then mild.

The operation would cost all in 3k so I'm a bit unsure what to do.

Does anyone have any advice?

I'm 32 and my AMH levels were 10 over 2 years ago.

Thanks 😊

[Meako]

My husband has surgery for his varicocele in Jan this year and has a notable impact on his sperm quality. We still didn't manage to get pregnant naturally and are now doing ICSI, but thought it might be reassuring to know that his sperm did improve following this

[Kirstyloop88 in reply to Meako]

Was his varicocele mild? I'm thinking we should just go for icsi again tbh xx

[DianeArnold Partner Nurse Fertility Network UK in reply to Kirstyloop88]

Hi Kirstyloop. That is always an option, but having the surgery just might improve sperm quality. Hope everything turns out, whichever option you choose. Diane

[Shivaya2020 in reply to Meako]

Hi Meako my husband has also been advised the surgery as we have had 2 failed cycles. Wanted to know how many months after the surgery did you’ll see the improvement? We are worried on the waiting time as I am 35

[Kirstyloop88 in reply to Shivaya2020]

Think it can be 6 months before you get improvements. Xx

[Meako in reply to Kirstyloop88]

It ended up being 6 months before he could get another test because of covid, but they said it should improve from 3 months. We still haven't managed to conceive, but have Judy had a round of ICSI fail, so must be more to our conception troubles than just this I guess.

[Kirstyloop88 in reply to Meako]

I'm not sure really.I've had 1 cycle of icsi I got 1 fresh and one day 6 frostie. Both didn't stick, and no idea why. 6 eggs 5 fertilised 5 made it to day 3 but only left with 2. They say the sperm takes over after day 3. I'm not sure. It is very worrying isn't it =(

James has lost a stone already so we're just seeing what happens naturally and go for icsi again in July.

I had an undiagnosed polyp in my womb for 18 months of our 2.5 years of trying... So that wouldn't have helped 🤦‍♀️🙄

[Rain415]

Hi kirsty, my husband was meant to have his surgery through NHS in February but was cancelled due to covid and were still waiting. We have just done icsi had a failed fresh cycle and waiting for frozen transfer. Odd thing is they never said what grade it was just they could feel it without a scan so opted for surgery as it could improve quality which is the issue. It might be worth doing the surgery as there's clearly a varicocele there. I'm sorry the nhs deemed it not worthwhile to do the surgery it's so frustrating when it comes to Male fertility.

[Shivaya2020]

Hi Kirstyloop88 We are in the exactly same boat as you. The urologist previous to the IVF cycles did not recommend it to us, but now that 2 cycles have failed he feels we should do the surgery.

In our case also the USG showed Grade 1 but apparently bcoz its more prominent of the left side + its “palpable” they think it should help doing the surgery. We are good to go ahead with the surgery, but are only afraid of the wait time which i have read can vary from 3 to 6 months. That really scares me