Sorry for the late reply Hyde, i have been snowed under with house work and decorating (of all things!).
Basically the veins from the testicle run down from your left kidney/adrenal to your testicle which put's it at risk from toxic by products (hence why the blood supply needs to be functional and your T optimized for best effect).
You might notice some guy's who are secondary experience increases in testicular size without HCG this could be todo with the improved cardiovascular function as well as the fact that estridol and T/E ratio is very important for sperm production and in turn testicular function (i have low E2 which could cause sperm production problems in itself). HCG might be the answer but i want to get the blood flow evaluated on ultrasound to fully rule out any testicular problems.
The problem is that when a varicocele occurs on the left testicle it tends to work it's way up towards the kidney so you end up with a tentacle size vein strangulated and wirey all the way up to your kidney (hence why the varicocele get's bigger and bigger). Varicocele embolization tends to mean "plugging" the vein at kidney level to stop blood going down that way and being redirected to healthy veins. For me this removed the varicocele in my sack and the vein seemed to die off, however i am not 100% convinced the operation has worked and going back to see my urologist to find out if it might be worth entering the scrotum and tying the vein off to be sure NOTHING can be flowing around in there and giving the testicle a chance at least to work well. Maybe he can put in more coils or something. I will keep you posted on my progress.
I recommend the varicocele embolization for relief of varicocele pain and discomfort but i cannot confirm if i have noticed an increase in testosterone or sperm production since the operation (nor testicular size). My nut's for lack of a better explination are going nut's! My left one is changing size and shape throughout the day and it's causing all manner of problems for me i think. They are basically going from full to atrophied for some reason due to bad blood flow. I believe T/DHT/E have a huge role to play in this too though. Only time we will tell when i run HCG + TRT to see how thing's work out (or try to restart). I am going to get fresh blood work done next week and i will post up before and after blood work.
The best options to go for regarding varicocele operations are probably in this order:
Varicocele Embolization
Microsurgical Varicocelectomy
Varicocele Ligitation (Scotal)
Realistcally you are suffering from similar symptoms to a secondary hypogonadism sufferer. Because you LH is low (should be at 3+ to be normal) in theory if you get this back up to 3.9/4 (Which mine is at and i have never done steriods or anything) then you could double you T (roughly) up to about 600. The varicocele WILL cause some degree of leydig cell dysfunction but after this is fixed i am sure you will go back up to 700+ if your HPTA is back and functional (i.e. LH at 4).
Let me know how you get on and if you have any more questions.
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Newer done steroid or T supplementation at that time.
Now I am on Androgel.
I complained about ED, sore testicles when not using tight panties.
First test ordered by local doctor, done at LabCorp (7/10/03)
Testosterone, serum=255 (241-827) ng/dL
I then went to university hospital,
there the director of sex health told me that I have varicocele.
He ordered tests and I done them at local hospital's lab (Jan8/04)
E2=24 (0-52) pg/mL
LU=5.7 (1.5-9.3) miu/mL
Prolactin=7.2 (2.1-17.7) ng/mL
Testosterone=311 (241-827) ng/dL
and at Quest Diagnostics
Free Testosterone (EIA)=6.0(2.6-64.8) pg/mL
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What should have been my best line of action if I could start it from scratch again?
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At this time 7.5gram of Androgel and two pills of DIM+I3C,
DIM-vise equal to one pill of Indolplex with DIM
keeps me operating semi-ok.
My testicles are shrunk and scrotum is tight, but no pain.