Varicocelectomy – worse before better?

hoping+praying

Hi! I am looking for advice and hopefully encouragement My husband had a microsurgical varicocelectomy to repair his bilateral varicocele in July. He had a follow up SA at the beginning of November and his numbers aren't improved. does it just take time? He also had 2 doses of Prednisone in September to clear up two cases of Poison Ivy ... I know this may have negatively affected the SA results too. Experience? Advice? Thank you so much!

BunInTheLab

My husband has bilateral varicoceles as well. His urologist said only about 30% show improved numbers after the surgery, that's why we opted not to do it until after we get KU. It takes three months to show improvement, and since you said he had prednisone in Sept that'd be not until Dec that you'd see better numbers. That's all the insight I have Good luck to you both!! Hoping his numbers continue to improve!

aliciafiggy

My RE was strongly against this. He believed that this surgery would not improve anything. I have no idea what the success rates are but we chose to do IVF, instead of risking surgery. I wish you the best of luck though and hope this works for you and your husbands!!

tptbabe

No experience here with varicocelectomy, but I just wanted to commiserate with your DHs poison ivy. I had it bad enough to need several weeks of prednisone a few years ago and it was miserable!!! Poor guy

Carol77B

My DH's urologist said it could take up to a year to get the full benefits from the surgery, so we opted not to do anything for his, since we're doing IVF with PICSI (though we had some surprise higher counts, so converted my last IVF to an IUI instead of cancelling when faced with a dominant follicle). Since there's also the 3-4 months it takes for sperm to develop, and your DH was on the steroids in Sept, it really is probably too early to see any benefit.

Smootiepie

DH's Uro actually told us it could take up to 2 years to see the full results.  We are unfortunately in the no improvement camp (for count, anyways).

It could be the meds YH was on, so give it a little more time.  GL!

hoping+praying

Thank you everyone! I am new to the bump and am just seeing your responses ... I thought I would have gotten email notifications. I will definitely be getting on here more often, it's great to have the support! What a tough road infertility is! You just have to remember to count your blessings and whenever your miracle happens, it's just a super blessing!

Thanks again ladies!