Abstract
Many authors have argued over the relationship between infertility and varicocele over the last 100 years. In the first century ad, Celsus first documented this pathology, stating that “the testicle of varicocele is smaller than the unaffected side.” Most investigators have suggested that the presence of a varicocele could result in lower fertility rates. The incidence of varicocele is greater in subfertile males than in the general population. A review of incidental varicoceles found in the general population, approximately 60 % were associated with semen abnormalities (Johnson et al, South Med J 63:34–36, 1970). However, the facts that not all men with varicocele are infertile and that surgical management does not improve fertility in 100 % of cases has prompted some doubt as to role of surgery, laparoscopy, or subinguinal microscopic varicocelectomy in this abnormality (Al-Kandari et al, Urology 69:417–420, 2007). These points are reviewed and discussed in this chapter.
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Beretta, G. (2015). Varicocele and Infertility. In: Cavallini, G., Beretta, G. (eds) Clinical Management of Male Infertility. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08503-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08503-6_7
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