Greater than half of the men with cryptozoospermia that underwent varicocele repair improved semen parameters to be optimized for IVF/ICSI or potentially lesser involved fertility treatments and obviated the need for surgical sperm retrieval. Neither patient age, serum FSH level, nor clinical grade of varicocele showed a statistically significant association with favorable versus unfavorable semen parameter response to varicocele repair in infertile men with preoperative cryptozoospermia.This data suggests varicocele repair may be offered to infertile, cryptozoospermic men with palpable varicoceles.
Kavoussi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.