Varicocele Microsurgery

[LoveInshallah]

Hello! I am looking for stories about the recovery period and experiences following a microsurgical varicocelectomy. Any info on semen analyses or BFPs after the surgery would be great, too!

My husband is scheduled for one soon. His count is okay at around 40 mil/ml and around 115-120 mil total. Motility 25-30% rapid and progressive, with rapid being 11-16%. Morph was 10% on one SA with a normal cutoff of 15%, and 20% on another SA where 30% was the normal cutoff. With these numbers, our RE said less than 1% chance of pregnancy, ever, not even taking into account my issues. Quite a blow. The urologist did not give a percentage but suggested we try another 6 months, which sounds more optimistic.

We are moving forward now anyway, but I would like to hear any anecdotes from anyone who has already been through the microsurgery. A lot of the stories I've found online are for different procedures cut through the abdomen, which I imagine would have longer and rougher recovery periods, and which have a slightly lower success rate.

 

[LoveInshallah]

I forgot to mention, my husband was diagnosed with a grade 3 varicocele.

 

[PocoHR]

Sorry, I don't have any advice, I haven't dealt with this problem, and its not one I've heard much about. I hope that his surgery will be successful though, and that you'll get your baby soon

 

[Ltruns33]

I think my husband has the same thing going on. He had a low/normal sperm count of 23 mil but a certain percentage were abnormal shaped, another percentage was not mobile, etc. I can't remember his exact number of good functioning sperm but the urologist said something about a varicocle that is too small. He said its not cooling off his testicles and therefore affecting sperm production. He's scheduled to do a repeat SA then a procedure on his varicocle. Maybe it's the same as yours. I've had EVERY test under the sun..all normal from bloods to laparascopic. His hue mine numbers are all fine otherwise. Hopefully we both get answers, I'm interested too.

 

[PinkPeony10]

I have a story for you!! My husband was diagnosed with a grade 3 varicocele. He had 2 SA done where his Morphology was only 2% and 1%. (Kruger Strict) His motility was 67% and then again only 26%. His count was on the lower end of normal. 20.5mil/ml. He got the subinguinal (sp?) microsurgery on January 30th. He only took pain meds at the hospital following surgery. He never took any after that. He said he felt uncomfortable and tender at the surgery sight...but that he wasn't really in any pain. Each day got easier and easier for him. I THINK he only took off work the day of and the day following surgery. I can't remember. He was feeling pretty normal for the most part within a week. The urologist was amazed that he never had to take any pain meds.

Anyway....as for the results...My DH had his first post-op SA about 7 weeks following surgery. His count was up, and motility was up a little, and his morph went up to 3%. We were told we wouldn't really see any results. 12 weeks after surgery...he had another SA. His count was up again...now at 50mil/ml, his motility was up to 72% (I think) It was in the 70's. lol And then his morph was up to 4%.

A week after his 12 week post-op SA. We conceived!!!! NATURALLY!!!! We tried for 19 months and FINALLY succeeded!!! It is still pretty early. I am only 7 and a half weeks....but everything has been going well so far!!! Keeping my fingers crossed that it sticks!! I HIGHLY recommend surgery! Results do vary for each person...but it definitely is worth the try! Good luck! And I hope this gives you hope!

 

[LoveInshallah]

Pink, thank you so much for posting that! I can't tell you how much I appreciate the ray of hope. Congratulations! My husband and I both have major hurdles to overcome if we are going to get pregnant. My ovarian reserve doesn't make us very good candidates for a lot of treatments, and while we do continue to see RE's and explore what options we may have left, I admit I'm really praying for a natural BFP miracle. I know his varicocele surgery won't fix my problems, but I have to hope they raise the odds for us having a happy surprise!!

He did have the microsurgery procedure performed a few days ago. We were surprised to see the incision was closer to 7cm than 2cm, but his healing is going really well so far, thank God. No prescription pain killers, just Advil or Tylenol. No swelling or bruising. I can't wait until we can get another SA and see if it worked! The doctor who performed the procedure was optimistic.

May I ask, did your husband see any change in testosterone levels?

Thank you again for the response! Best wishes for a healthy and happy pregnancy and baby!

 

[PinkPeony10]

Pink, thank you so much for posting that! I can't tell you how much I appreciate the ray of hope. Congratulations! My husband and I both have major hurdles to overcome if we are going to get pregnant. My ovarian reserve doesn't make us very good candidates for a lot of treatments, and while we do continue to see RE's and explore what options we may have left, I admit I'm really praying for a natural BFP miracle. I know his varicocele surgery won't fix my problems, but I have to hope they raise the odds for us having a happy surprise!!

He did have the microsurgery procedure performed a few days ago. We were surprised to see the incision was closer to 7cm than 2cm, but his healing is going really well so far, thank God. No prescription pain killers, just Advil or Tylenol. No swelling or bruising. I can't wait until we can get another SA and see if it worked! The doctor who performed the procedure was optimistic.

May I ask, did your husband see any change in testosterone levels?

Thank you again for the response! Best wishes for a healthy and happy pregnancy and baby!

I know exactly how you feel when you hear some good news about the surgery! I remember looking before DH had his surgery to see if anyone had any results with it. I know I had gotten mixed reviews from people. I just kept thinking positively...and it worked out! I did have my husband taking Fertility Blend...which I think it helped a little with the count. I actually started taking Fertility Blend for women about 3 months before I found out I was pregnant. So I don't know if that helped or not too?! Who knows?! I know I had really low estrogen when I was tested once. Which I read is a sign of menopause?! lol But I am way to young for that! Only 28. I read that it can be a sign of bad quality eggs too. So I don't know what was up with that! I also started taking Maca root powder around the same time as the fertility blend. It's suppose to help your hormones balance themselves out. So who knows?! Something worked! I do know that his sperm is in fact getting better tho! So the surgery clearly helped out in that area!

My husband still plans on getting his 6 month post-op SA just to see how much better its gotten. That will probably be the first week in August. I'll have to let you know how it turns out. When does your hubby get his first post-op SA? I'll be praying that his results are good! Just don't get your hopes up too high that you'll see a major change right away. It's all gradual. And I know we were told we might not even see any improvement the first 3 months or so. And yet...we got pregnant in 3 months! I really hope that the surgery helps get you your miracle baby! Good luck!

 

[1babydreamer]

Hi ladies, I just wanted to share a little of my story as I think it may help some couples who have severe male factor infertility.

We've been trying to conceive for 22 months and I've had every test done under the sun! Everything with me has come back normal and good and the only test they recommended for DH was a routine sperm analysis. It came back normal. All is numbers were great, his motility and morphology so we though that was the end of that! We kept trying to conceive naturally as we were in the "unexplained" category and then we tried two IUI's with clomid and estradiol and nothing . Finally we moved on to a fertility specialist from my OBGYN and my DH asked if there were any other tests they could do on him to figure out what could be wrong. He said no, since DH's SA was normal there was nothing else. We ended up switching to a different R.E. before starting any treatment and FINALLY this one told us about the SCSA test for DH. It stands for Sperm Chromatin Structural Assay, and it tests the sperm for levels of DNA fragmentation. Here is the website for more info:
https://www.scsadiagnostics.com/faqs

My DH's results came back abnormal on all three parameters tested. 38% for DFI (DNA Fragmentation Index), 5.1 for OSA (Oxidative Stress Adduct,) and 24 for HDS (High DNA Stainability). We were told that we have little to zero chance of ever conceiving on our own and our only chance would be IVF with TESE (Testicular Sperm Extraction) and ICSI. If we had done a normal round of IVF with ICSI without TESE we would most likely have failed as we would have been using fragmented sperm for ICSI.

We just completed our first round of IVF and DH had his TESE procedure done the same morning I had my egg retrieval. They retrieved 17 eggs and 9 of those fertilized with ICSI. On transfer day 5, we had 4 top grade A blasts, 1 B and 4 morula's still growing. We transferred two of the top grade A blasts and I will be getting my blood test on 6/24. Fingers crossed it all worked and we are successful and can give hope to others in the same boat!

I encourage all couples who have been TTC for over a year to look into the SCSA test. It was only $250 and it could save you so much money and heartache on wasted ART treatments!

 

[1babydreamer]

Oh! and I just wanted to mention that DH went to the urologist and only had slight varicocele on one testicle. Not bad enough to require repairing and he has no other health concerns or past treatments that would have caused this. He's 38, healthy and athletic. I just wish we had known about this test sooner.

 

[tanysha27]

I have a story for you!! My husband was diagnosed with a grade 3 varicocele. He had 2 SA done where his Morphology was only 2% and 1%. (Kruger Strict) His motility was 67% and then again only 26%. His count was on the lower end of normal. 20.5mil/ml. He got the subinguinal (sp?) microsurgery on January 30th. He only took pain meds at the hospital following surgery. He never took any after that. He said he felt uncomfortable and tender at the surgery sight...but that he wasn't really in any pain. Each day got easier and easier for him. I THINK he only took off work the day of and the day following surgery. I can't remember. He was feeling pretty normal for the most part within a week. The urologist was amazed that he never had to take any pain meds.

Anyway....as for the results...My DH had his first post-op SA about 7 weeks following surgery. His count was up, and motility was up a little, and his morph went up to 3%. We were told we wouldn't really see any results. 12 weeks after surgery...he had another SA. His count was up again...now at 50mil/ml, his motility was up to 72% (I think) It was in the 70's. lol And then his morph was up to 4%.

A week after his 12 week post-op SA. We conceived!!!! NATURALLY!!!! We tried for 19 months and FINALLY succeeded!!! It is still pretty early. I am only 7 and a half weeks....but everything has been going well so far!!! Keeping my fingers crossed that it sticks!! I HIGHLY recommend surgery! Results do vary for each person...but it definitely is worth the try! Good luck! And I hope this gives you hope!

U give me soo much hope my hubby just had the surgeries in 2012 @ this passed January. I don't know grade it was all we know was it was stopping his sperm and had low count. He went back Tuesday and doctor said is everything is where it's needs to be. Praying I get my BFP this month

 

[DESPONDENT]

1babydreamer, I completely agree with you! DH and I have been TTC since Sept 2011. I have undergone all tests incl lap, hsg all came back normal. A year ago it was discovered that DH had a varicocele but urologist said we could proceed with IUI as his numbers were still OK and would be better after sperm wash. Anyways we did 3 IUI AND 1 IVF, ALL BFN. At that stage my RE decided to do a more indepth sperm investigation as he could not understand what our problem was. This determined DH had 76% DNA fragmentation on the sperm even though his numbers seemed fine -its a case of quality not quantity. RE then insisted DH have the varicolectomy which he had done on 11 June 2014. When DH went abck to his urologist, he was livid with the RE. He said he gave us the go ahead for the the IUI not IVF. In our case it was sadly miscommunication betwween the RE and urologist. Now we are currently one month post varicolectomy, and will probabaly do the follow up SA in Sep 2014 which is 3 months post op. I have read lots of stories about natural conception being possible post op, but I dont even know how to be positive anymore. Deep down I have actually given up, but will perservere for DH sake, as I know this is what he wants most in the world. I just wish the dna test was done a year ago when the uro discovered the varicocele, especially as it is such a cheap test! at least then we would have had more direction now......

 

[1babydreamer]

1babydreamer, I completely agree with you! DH and I have been TTC since Sept 2011. I have undergone all tests incl lap, hsg all came back normal. A year ago it was discovered that DH had a varicocele but urologist said we could proceed with IUI as his numbers were still OK and would be better after sperm wash. Anyways we did 3 IUI AND 1 IVF, ALL BFN. At that stage my RE decided to do a more indepth sperm investigation as he could not understand what our problem was. This determined DH had 76% DNA fragmentation on the sperm even though his numbers seemed fine -its a case of quality not quantity. RE then insisted DH have the varicolectomy which he had done on 11 June 2014. When DH went abck to his urologist, he was livid with the RE. He said he gave us the go ahead for the the IUI not IVF. In our case it was sadly miscommunication betwween the RE and urologist. Now we are currently one month post varicolectomy, and will probabaly do the follow up SA in Sep 2014 which is 3 months post op. I have read lots of stories about natural conception being possible post op, but I dont even know how to be positive anymore. Deep down I have actually given up, but will perservere for DH sake, as I know this is what he wants most in the world. I just wish the dna test was done a year ago when the uro discovered the varicocele, especially as it is such a cheap test! at least then we would have had more direction now......

I am so sorry for all that you have gone through in the struggle to conceive!! I feel your pain and disappointment and I was in exactly the same place last year!! Now I have my beautiful forever rainbow baby boy and I can honestly tell you he is worth every bit of pain and struggle we experienced! Please don't lose hope and don't give up!
I truly believe that the struggle we went through has made us a stronger couple and will help us become better parents.

 

[Bab22]

Am new in this forum, Congratulation to those that have got their bfp. I want you to share your experience about recovery duration after varicocele surgical treatment