Coping With Varicocele

Most everything I have read about varicoceles is related to infertility. I am one of the ones that was lucky enough to be fertile but experienced extreme pain. By the afternoon and into the evening I would feel like someone was crushing my left testicle. I am a healthy 35 year old who has had two kids and had never had a single health problem in my life.

Six months ago I started having constant pain in my testicles, which continued to get worse. For about five years I would have occassional pain but it would go away. Thankfully I went to a GP when I first started having constant pain that sent me to get an ultrasound. The ultrasound tech pointed out the varicocele and then I went to a urologist who did not see anything. Still in pain, I went to another urologist who did see the varicocele

At the time he told me the only option to fix it was surgery and I should wait a little while to see if it gets worse. It did get worse. The veins became large and very visible by just looking at them. They started to surround and basically strangle my left testicle, which began to shrink in size and I started having symptoms of low testosterone such as tired, weak, iritable, no ambition, low sex drive and less facial hair. By the afternoon my left testicle would be so hot I could feel the heat coming through my pants. I went back to the urologist who said that the veins were much larger and he recommended surgery. I had my testosterone level checked and it came back in at the low level of acceptable. My doctor said that if the left testicle is not working the right is supposed to start working more but I don’t think mine worked this way. At this point my right testicle also seemed to be getting smaller.

I had always had high energy and endurance levels along with thick facial hair, so I would imagine that my level prior to the varicocele was much higher.

Since I was having extreme pain in my testicle and felt absolutely horrible and almost like a zombie, I scheduled the surgery and had it almost a month ago. I ended up having to have a 3 inch incision due to the way the veins were situated. There was some pain from the surgery but with the pain medication I didn’t feel too bad as long as I took it easy the first couple of days. Immediately I started feeling better. Everything was swollen and sore at first but within a few days I was moving pretty good. I was lucky that I only had just a little bruising at the bottom of the incision and everything healed quickly. Luckily I have an office job, so I didn’t have to do any lifting. It took me a little over two weeks before I felt like lifting much.

A few days after the surgery I could feel my energy level coming back and had almost no pain in my testicle. At a month my testicle has almost no pain. The only pain I have is that it is very sensitive if it is bumped. The veins have shrunk substantially although they are still there. The only other side effect from the surgery which is supposed to go away in a couple of months is that the left side of my incision down into my upper thigh is still a little numb and sometimes feels like it is being pricked from a bunch of little needles. This is from the nerves that are cut and it takes a while for them to heal. The incision area is still a litle sore and if I do something extremely physical like play soccer for a while, I can feel a little pain around my incision.

I have not had a new test for my testosterone level but it has to be higher because I no longer have any symptoms of low testosterone I know this one is controversial and some doctors say testosterone levels are effected and other say they are not. From my experience I would definitely say that the varicocele lowered my testosterone level. My left and right testicles have increased in size.

My doctor said that the surgery does not always work for every guy but from my experience I would recommend that any guy experiencing similar problems have surgery. The surgery definitely has worked for me so far. I hope I continue to stay on track and have no future problems.

When I started having problems I started reading other guys postings, so I thought I would add my experience and maybe help someone else out there.

If you are having problems with fertility and have the surgery I hope it helps and you are able to have children.

If you have any questions about my experience let me know.