Ulysses
Member
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2018
- Messages
- 340
Hi,
In January I visited a urologist to address an unrelated complaint, and while I was there he diagnosed me with a left varicocele. Not having ever heard of the condition before then, I didn't think much of it until I started noticing some posters discussing it on these forums, and dug a little deeper.
I began to feel concern about it, sought a second opinion. This urologist ordered a scrotal ultrasound, and I just got the results. My left testicle currently measures 4.2 x 1.4 x 2.3 cm. According to the formula used on this site, that places it in the bottom 1% of testicular volume for men my age (26).
The other testicle is more or less normal, slightly below the mean volume but nothing significant.
I haven't had the followup phone appointment with the urologist yet, but this already has me feeling quite depressed and a little anxious, so I would appreciate the thoughts of this forum on my situation. I have been dealing with poor libido, lack of erections, low energy and moodiness for some time, and it seems obvious to me that this is a factor.
Most importantly, what can I do, if anything, to reverse the testicular atrophy? The varicocele is sizable and I would consider surgical repair. From what I've read, modest increases in testicular volume on the order of 1.5-2.5 mL can be expected from varicocelectomy, but I would like to achieve something more than this if possible.
I have stopped weightlifting and other vertical-load-bearing activities because they clearly aggravate the varicocele, and replaced them with swimming, which noticeably improves blood flow to both testicles for several hours after my workout, and temporarily stops the dull ache I often feel in my left testicle. I know chlorine exposure is not ideal for the testicles, but my thinking is the circulatory benefits outweigh the downsides.
The last thing, which has me puzzled, is that as recently as December of last year, I had my reproductive hormones tested and my total testosterone was extremely high (1300 ng/dL). I understand that varicocele has progressive effects on testicular function, so maybe my hormone status is worse now, but my feeling is I've had this for a number of years, and I doubt my testicular function was much better just eight months ago. The other relevant pieces of information were low-ish Free Testosterone (towards the bottom end of the reference range) and high estradiol (61 pg/mL if memory serves). I'll try to dig up the test results, but I guess I should probably have my hormones re-tested anyways.
In January I visited a urologist to address an unrelated complaint, and while I was there he diagnosed me with a left varicocele. Not having ever heard of the condition before then, I didn't think much of it until I started noticing some posters discussing it on these forums, and dug a little deeper.
I began to feel concern about it, sought a second opinion. This urologist ordered a scrotal ultrasound, and I just got the results. My left testicle currently measures 4.2 x 1.4 x 2.3 cm. According to the formula used on this site, that places it in the bottom 1% of testicular volume for men my age (26).
The other testicle is more or less normal, slightly below the mean volume but nothing significant.
I haven't had the followup phone appointment with the urologist yet, but this already has me feeling quite depressed and a little anxious, so I would appreciate the thoughts of this forum on my situation. I have been dealing with poor libido, lack of erections, low energy and moodiness for some time, and it seems obvious to me that this is a factor.
Most importantly, what can I do, if anything, to reverse the testicular atrophy? The varicocele is sizable and I would consider surgical repair. From what I've read, modest increases in testicular volume on the order of 1.5-2.5 mL can be expected from varicocelectomy, but I would like to achieve something more than this if possible.
I have stopped weightlifting and other vertical-load-bearing activities because they clearly aggravate the varicocele, and replaced them with swimming, which noticeably improves blood flow to both testicles for several hours after my workout, and temporarily stops the dull ache I often feel in my left testicle. I know chlorine exposure is not ideal for the testicles, but my thinking is the circulatory benefits outweigh the downsides.
The last thing, which has me puzzled, is that as recently as December of last year, I had my reproductive hormones tested and my total testosterone was extremely high (1300 ng/dL). I understand that varicocele has progressive effects on testicular function, so maybe my hormone status is worse now, but my feeling is I've had this for a number of years, and I doubt my testicular function was much better just eight months ago. The other relevant pieces of information were low-ish Free Testosterone (towards the bottom end of the reference range) and high estradiol (61 pg/mL if memory serves). I'll try to dig up the test results, but I guess I should probably have my hormones re-tested anyways.