Varicocele diagnosed

[toriistrying]

Hi all

We both had our first fertility tests done last week. I was luckily fine. My husbands were very poor in terms of count, mobility and morphology.

The gynaecologist said we had male factor infertility and we need ICSI.

We managed to get a cancellation today with dr Jonathan Ramsay, a urologist.

He examined my husband and they found a varicocele in his left testicle.

Surgery will be the next step.

My questions is, what are peoples experiences with this. Have you gone on to see an improvement / fallen pregnant naturally?

Thank you xx

Anyone

Hi @toriistrying - my husband had the surgery in March. The count does appear to have improved but we haven't fallen pregnant naturally yet. Im also not sure whether it is the surgery or the fact that my husband has basically completely cut out caffeine, alcohol etc - or a combination of the two! I know it is still early days but We're going to start ICSI in September fingers crossed. Hope you are ok. I know how horrible it is:

Thank you so much for replying @marshk we are 7 days post our first fertility tests so it is all very new. Very lucky to have answers so quickly.

From an examination, Ramsay guessed it was 4mm. Ultrasound pending!

Ramsay basically said that getting his sperm in the best condition is paramount to falling naturally or with ICSI.

We got told by the gyno that did our fertility testing to just go and get IVF. I'm so glad we haven't done that.

Did your partners morphology, motility and fragmentation improve? Xx

We had an appointment booked with Ramsay but cancelled in the end as we ended up seeing a urologist in Manchester and got booked in really quickly for the surgery. I would have loved to have met him though weirdly!!

We had the same view re the surgery - trying to get things in the best shape possible.

We actually haven't had a proper test done again since. We've been using the exseed home tests which the urologist said weren't bad to give an overall trend. I'm not sure I trust them 100% but there seems to have been an improvement!

@marshk he was very reassuring and easy to talk to. That aside, it's amazing you were seen so quickly.

Ramsay features in the documentary on I player - my brother, my balls and me. Also the fertility podcast by Natalie.

Completely fair enough re testing. At this point you have done everything you can.

I wish you all the best for ICSI. Are you feeling a mixed bag of emotions?

I honestly must have listened to 100s of podcasts at this point 😂

Thank you! Yes definitely a mixed bag. It's exciting that it feels like it could actually happen but also obviously it's a lot to get your head around.

How long have you been trying for?

@toriistrying my husband was found to have a severe varicocele when we'd been trying 8 months. We went private to have it embolised but he was in the 10% of men where the surgeon couldn't find the correct vein so it didn't work.

We went to ICSI and worried aboit dna damage and oxidisation so he went on a strict regimen to improve where he could despite the varicocele, taking proxeed, wearing loose boxers, no caffeine or alcohol in 3 month run up to the IVF cycle, and aiming to ejaculate every other day to keep the sperm production fresh.

We had a great first cycle, had 100% fertilisation rate and got 6 good and top quality embryos at day 5 out of 7 fertilised eggs. First fresh transfer failed but first frozen transfer two months later worked and I'm now 39+4 with a little boy. :)

@marshk lol, knowledge is power and all that.

20+ months with no positives. How about you?

Channel that excitement.

Where are you starting ICSI, in Manchester? Can you recommend anywhere to read / watch / listen re the procedure. I don't know enough about it and what the woman goes through.

X

@Imisscoffee2021 I was stalking your comments on previous threads late last night!

I'm sorry you had to go through all of that but I'm so happy it has worked out.

I need to start researching ICSI. Where did you start the process?

@Imisscoffee2021 39+4 WOW! Congratulations. July baby pending!

About a year and a half. I think I did actually pick up a lot from podcasts to be honest. The fertility pod was really helpful and although more light hearted I adore BFN Podcast. There's also a new podcast focussing on MFI solely called Testhim which is quite good

@toriistrying I've been very vocal and active about this topic 😅 because my husbands was missed back when we first got together by the gp when he specifically went in to see if he had one as you could feel it, when he was 24! Then age 33 trying to a baby and turns out was there all along. Feels a million years ago now, all the anger and sadness :)

Regarding ICSI, we decided to go private again (spent all our house deposit savings but worth it!) as we felt so much time had passed already. I researched clinics nearby and found Care Fertility and went with them after logging in to one of their live webinars and asming questions. Researched heavily the costs as there are hidden extras in IVF and chose the multicycle package in case the first round didn't work or went badly, you just don't know til you try unfortunately! But male factor is the easiest fix they always said, and we were very lucky in our round. My husband still has the varicocele and always will tbh but so grateful that ISCI exists.

Thank-you! No sign of him yet, cant quite believe he's almost here as it's been 26 months since starting our TTC journey!

Hi @Imisscoffee2021 - we've also spoken before when I've been trawling this app for info about varicoceles! Just wanted to wish you all the best - how exciting that he is nearly here now!

@Imisscoffee2021 thank god you are vocal about this topic. If it weren't for people like you, we wouldn't have seen a urologist and been banging on the door of an IVF clinic.

We got a cancellation two days after calling Ramsay.

Husband had tests done same day and follow up in 3 weeks.

I read re what the GP did. Honestly 

If it doesn't work, you've given us hope.

We are about 30 mins outside of London.

Thank you so much for advocating. X

@toriistrying Just to add as I saw you asking about what a woman goes through with ICSI, its the same as IVF for the woman, they just inject the sperm directly into the egg rather than let the sperm find their own way.

So stimulation drugs you inject yourself or have partner do it if you're not keen. I didn't find this hard, first one was a bit eek but you get used to it, and for my successful transfer I had daily progesterone injections all the way to 12 weeks as mine was a bit low, so it becomes normal quickly. Side effects of stimulation varies woman to woman, they'll tailor make your dose based on the tests they do prior to writing out your plan (amh blood test and astral follicle count scan). I was bloated and uncomfortable by egg collection. Egg collection shares alot of women but you're asleep throughout, I remember nothing of it as was 100% sedated. Again you're tender and bloated afterwards. You get told how many eggs are collected before you go home and then they call you the next day to tell you how many were mature and how many fertilised. Then depending on the clinic they give you a day 3 and day 5 update as there is often a rate of attrition and some stop developing.

Any specific questions you have though happy to help :)

@toriistrying I'm in a similar location to you so used Care Woking :)

@marshk thanks so much! :) so hope it's not long for all of you too! X

Antral follicle count **

@marshk thank you. Will give those a listen. Please update us. I would love to stay in touch and hear about how you get on. Xx

@Imisscoffee2021 thank you so much. I didn't know much about IVF so it is becoming slightly clearer. There is so much self education you need to do isn't there.

Enjoy that baby/ coffee very soon.

I'll keep you updated

Thanks @toriistrying - you too. Will keep you updated xx

Hi OP, my DH had a varicocele and had the embolisation procedure. I fell pregnant naturally 3 months later. We had been trying for over 2 years before that!

I have a friend whose DH also had the same procedure and she eventually fell pregnant (it took longer though, I believe it was 1 year later).

We went into it with the same thoughts - that if anything, at least it might improve chances of IVF/ICSI. Except in the end we didn’t need it.

Good luck and wishing you all the best!

@StBernie wow. That is amazing. Congratulations. The hope is keeping me going.

How big was your partners? From an examination, the urologist reckons its around 4mm.

Did your partner have worryingly low count / morphology etc. is that why you had the procedure? Xx

3.9mm if I recall correctly so very similar. His count, concentration and morphology were all low (but just within the reference ranges they give you on those tests). However he took a DNA fragmentation test through a fertility clinic and that showed very high results (which is bad). Following those results we booked to see a urologist and the varicocele was diagnosed.

Funnily enough, like you, I was simply referred for ICSI when I saw my first fertility doctor through the NHS. However I wanted to try and fix the source of the problem which is why I got my DH to have those further tests done privately.