Surgery or embolisation for varicocele in subfertile men

Does a clinical varicocele influence the relationship between testicular volume by ultrasound and testicular function in patients with infertility?

“…In addition, there is no consensus on the relationship between varicoceles and fertility (18). Moreover, recent studies reported that varicocele repair was not an effective treatment in infertile men (19)(20)(21)(22). Therefore, the relationship between the testicular function and testicular volume was evaluated in infertile men with and without varicoceles to determine whether varicoceles influence the testicular volume-function relationship.…”

“…Therefore, the clinical varicocele may influence the testicular volume-function relationship. While varicoceles are associated with male factor infertility, the causal relationship between varicoceles and subfertility has not been verified (18)(19)(20)(21)(22). In addition, few studies have so far considered the presence of varicoceles when evaluating the testicular volume-function relationships.…”

Effect of Varicocelectomy on Male Infertility

“…They showed consistently that there is no beneficial effect of varicocele treatment on a couple's chance of conception [9,10,11]. Earlier meta-analyses by the Cochrane collaboration simply concluded that there is no evidence that treatment of varicocele in men from couples with otherwise unexplained subfertility improves the couple's chance of conception [9].…”

“…They showed consistently that there is no beneficial effect of varicocele treatment on a couple's chance of conception [9,10,11]. Earlier meta-analyses by the Cochrane collaboration simply concluded that there is no evidence that treatment of varicocele in men from couples with otherwise unexplained subfertility improves the couple's chance of conception [9]. However, this finding has been criticized by several investigators, because some RCTs included men with subclinical varicoceles or normal semen analyses, and others had significant dropout rates after randomization [32,33].…”

“…The Cochrane Collaboration conducted a meta-analysis of studies published since 2001 to assess the effects of varicocele repair on pregnancy [8]. They showed consistently that there is no beneficial effect of varicocele treatment on a couple's chance of conception [9,10,11]. Thereafter, the role of varicocele repair as a means of infertility treatment was at stake.…”