Varioceles

[mumnerves]

Evening all,
DH was diagnose with this last year. Does anyone have any experience with it? I know lots of men go on to father kids with this but I can't help but worry.

Is there anything we can do to increase our chances other than the obvious boxer shorts, avoid baths etc? Would his GP be more likely to send him for a sperm analysis if he has this?

Any advice appreciated

Any help or experiences? Anyone please?!

mumnerves i would suggest asking for a sperm analysis just so you know exactly where you stand.

how was it diagnosed? has anyone mentioned having corrective surgery?

Varicoceles are usually treated surgically; has your DH seen a urologist to date?. At the very least he should be under the care of such a person.

Simple measures like you describe will not make any real difference to sperm count and or quality of semen.

Yes, I have experience of it and I would urge caution if you are recommended a procedure. My husband had a varicocele procedure called an embolization 15 months ago and his last semen analysis showed new problems with anti-sperm antibodies and agglutination, which had never been problems before. So as a consequence we have motility and morphology issues to work on PLUS new problems. Not a great success.

No one ever mentioned to us that this could be a consequence of having a surgical procedure, but it seems it can be. Basically if you have something done that damages the barrier in the testicles that keep normal immune processes away from sperm-making processes, you run the risk of antibodies being produced that harm your sperm.

I'm not saying it is an inevitable consequence, but it happened to us, so I would ask your consultant to tell you if it is a risk for you if you get as far as that.

I put my husband on Wellman supplements and L-Carnitine supplements (available from Holland & Barrett) plus vitamin C, and we conceived recently. Unfortunately we have just miscarried. But I would say look up L-Carnitine online and if you think it looks good, get your man on it.

Good luck.

mumatron It was diagnosed by a dr at a walk-in center. TBH he didn't tell us about reduced fertility or offer any help, he just said it may go away or it may get worse. I found out after reading more about it on the internet.
This was before we decided to TTC and he was having soreness down there and I made him go to the dr (typical man!) if we haven't conceived by the next cycle, he has to go see his GP anyway for something else and he was going to mention the varicoceles and ask for a sperm analysis.

Attila we don't want to go down the surgical route if poss so will see what his GP says next month if I'm still not pregs.

Cerubina thanks for the info on the supplements, the L-Carnitine looks very interesting, will mention it to DH tonight.

Thanks so much everyone for replying, I knew mumsnetters would point me in the right direction!

Cerubina sorry to hear about your MC Keeping my fingers crossed for a BFP for you soon! x

mumnerves get him to sort out a sperm test. like i said, at least you know what you have got to work with. we ruled it out as a possible cause for my recurrent miscarriages, but my consultant is convinced that dp's poor morphology is the reason we can concieve very easily but cant stay pg.

the man who did dp's sperm test (cant remember technical term) advised fertilaid and pycnogenal for him. in is words fertilaid are 'the gold standard of vits' for men with sperm issues.

we wont know if it makes any diff until his repeat test in about 4 weeks.

you never know, his sperm could be fine!

how long have you been ttc?

mumatron thanks for the wise words. We have only been ttc for 6-7 cycles and I've only been charting the last 2 so really not very long. It's just that as it is, it's so hard TTC anyway and getting that BFN every month.
Like you said I was also thinking at least we know either way. If it is then we can look at our choices but if it isn't a problem we can just carry on and take BFNs as it just wasn't meant to be.

mum even if you dont get grat news from a sperm analysis at least you will know what your options are.

for us the best course of actions seems to be icsi. although we are going to try 1 more pg on our own. see if we strike it lucky this time!!

all the best

Thanks, and all the best to you too

My ex-H had a varicocele which was diagnosed during fertility investigations. He was treated surgically and recovered well. I conceived DS about a year after (we were told the average time for conception post-op is 18 months) and when DS was 7 months old, to our surprise I became pregnant again.

The operation involved being an in-patient for a couple of days and ex-H was off work for about a week. It was 30 years ago so the details are a bit hazy, but a colleague had the same op recently and I think it's carried out in a similar way now - he was off work for the same length of time. No after effects - except for our 2 DCs! Wishing you all the best.

hormonesnomore thank you for sharing your experience