Varicocele Testing

[Capybara95]

Hi everyone, does anyone have a partner who had a Varicocele and could they advise how this was picked up please? Are they always able to be felt from the outside or can an ultrasound be needed sometimes?

I have just found out what they are as we are in the middle of transfers from a round of ICSI but no one has mentioned checking for them before and I am worried they could be part of our problem!

Hi @Capybara95 my husband had varicocele, the GP could feel them. For us it was the cause of our infertility but that's not always the case. Some men have them but it causes no issue with infertility. I'm not sure if they can always be felt, or go undetected.

Just to add we did IVF with ICSI and got pregnant on our first transfer. My son is now 3. So it can still work xx

Husband has a varicocele, you can feel and see it in his case as its severe. He also had a scan to confirm it, it showed blood flow and you could see it there, he went to an andrologist in the local hospital for it.

He still had it for our ICSI round as the surgeon couldn't get to the vein when he went for it to be embolised so had to go ahead with it there and terribly low sperm parameters, and we got 6 good and great embryos and pregnant on the first frozen transfer, however alot of the time it can cause a big embryo drop off after day 3 due to dna fragmentation/oxidisation to the sperm.

My partner went for an ultrasound and it was picked up, it was only after that he realised he could feel it, had never noticed it before! He had embolization done in September so just waiting now to see if there is an improvement, he will have another SA done in the new year.