i had microsurgery yesterday. the procedure went well. of course it takes 3 months or so to figure out how well everything actually went, but the surgery itself went good. dr thompson ligated 7 veins on the left and 5 on the right.
it is not as painful as i thought it would be. the anesthesia was really effective and seamless. and the surgeon injected a local painkiller into my groin while i was still under anesthesia. that lasted about 7 hours after i woke up. there's no way i should have felt so good after surgery. i did not have to start taking hydrocodone pills until about 8 hours after surgery. the painkiller was so good, i was having trouble detecting the ice on my groin. that actually kind of scared me, because i wasn't getting that information out of my groin anymore. one time i went to urinate, and touched my groin with my hand, where the ice has been, and my skin was almost ice cold. i was getting no haptic information from my nerves there, no signals to my brain that my groin and pelvis were really, really cold. fortunately the painkiller has worn off now and i'm getting nerve signals normally.
the incisions are lower than i thought they would be. less than 1 inch above where my dong connects to my pelvis. so the scars won't be too conspicuous. the cuts are pretty far below my belly button. probably not as big, or as high, as the incision for a hernia surgery. the cuts don't looks too big at all. maybe 1 inch or 1.5 inches across.
the wounds are stitched with self-dissolving stitches, then covered in transparent, water proof bandages, so i can shower.
recovery should take a while though. about 1 week until i can move around normally, and probably 3 weeks until i can exercise lightly. i don't even think about masturbating, since mentally i'm pretty defeated by how atrophied my testicles are. but i'm sure not masturbating for 1 month would be a problem for other guys. i haven't ejaculated in 3 weeks leading up to the surgery, and am not allowed to ejaculate for another 3 or 4 weeks while i heal. lots of dudes would probably go crazy if they had to hold back for 2 months.
i can piss normally, and i got an erection this morning coming out of sleep, so most things seem to be working normally. i don't have much bruising. at least not yet. although that might start happening today.
my testicles don't feel hot anymore. the damage from varicoceles seem to have been halted, which was the main point of the surgery. your testicles won't grow back if you're older than 18 or 19, so i expect to have really small testicles forever. although it's probably the case that in 20 years or so, researchers will figure out how to stimulate varicocele-damaged testicles to grow back, since the cells are atrophied, and not dead or dying. the leydig cells and sertoli cells shrink and expand, like fat cells, in response to what's happening in your body. so doctors can probably, in the future, make atrophied testicles expand back to more normal sizes.
Jody: How are you feeling today? Im having Thompson do my surgery this Friday. Have you recovered fine? How are your symtpoms? Im doiing my for the pain and low T. Recent study has shown link:
Research Led by NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Also Shows That Surgery for the Condition Can Increase Testosterone Levels; Findings Have Wide Implications for Clinical Practice
NEW YORK (Jun 16, 2011)
As many as 15 percent of men have varicoceles, masses of enlarged and dilated veins in the testicles. There is new evidence that varicoceles, long known to be a cause of male infertility, interfere with the production of testosterone — a crucial hormone to maintaining men's health.
There is good news too: Microsurgery can increase testosterone levels in these men. Results of new research by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are in a recent edition of BJU International.
"Varicoceles are a much more serious problem than previously thought. Low testosterone causes significant health problems in men. Besides causing low energy, decreased muscle strength and sexual problems, it is a major risk factor for osteopenia/osteoporosis and can also cause changes in cognitive and psychological function, in particular, depression," says Dr. Marc Goldstein, who initiated and led the study. He is the Matthew P. Hardy Distinguished Professor of Reproductive Medicine and a professor of urology at Weill Cornell Medical College and surgeon-in-chief of male reproductive medicine and surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He is also senior scientist with the Population Council's Center for Biomedical Research, located on the campus of Rockefeller University.
Varicoceles usually first appear during or shortly after puberty, explains Dr. Goldstein. "The common wisdom has been to leave them alone unless they are causing pain or infertility. But, as a result of our study, I recommend that teenagers and men with serious varicoceles be referred to a male reproductive urologist experienced in microsurgical varicocelectomy. It is much easier to prevent future fertility problems and low testosterone than wait until the damage has already occurred."
Adult men with a varicocele and low testosterone should also consider microsurgery sooner rather than later, says Dr. Goldstein. "The microsurgery techniques available today (and developed, in large part, at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell) have a very low complication and failure rate compared with the more invasive techniques used in the past. Microsurgery is a good choice for men with low testosterone as there are no oral medications to increase testosterone. And although testosterone shots, pellets and gels are effective, they are not tolerable or appropriate for many patients, such as men trying to conceive, and are certainly less convenient than making your own testosterone."
In the current study, Dr. Goldstein and his colleagues measured the preoperative testosterone levels of 325 men with varicoceles and in 510 men without varicoceles. They found that men at every age with varicoceles had significantly lower testosterone levels (416 vs. 469 ng/dL) than the comparison group. After undergoing microsurgical varicocelectomy, testosterone levels significantly increased in 70 percent of the patients, with a mean increase of 178 ng/dL.
"This research indicates that varicocele surgery, at the least, prevents further deterioration of testosterone production," says Dr. Cigdem Tanrikut, one of the authors of the study. Dr. Tanrikut did a fellowship in male reproductive medicine and microsurgery under Dr. Goldstein. She is currently assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, a urologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an adjunct assistant professor of urology and reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
