Find a Physician

Return to Center for Adolescent Varicocele Overview

Clinical Services

Return to Center for Adolescent Varicocele Overview

Health Information

Return to Center for Adolescent Varicocele Overview

Research and Clinical Trials

Return to Center for Adolescent Varicocele Overview

For Patients, Families & Visitors

Return to Center for Adolescent Varicocele Overview

Professionals

Return to Center for Adolescent Varicocele Overview

Hospital News

Return to Center for Adolescent Varicocele Overview

Urology

Center for Adolescent Varicocele

The Center for Adolescent Varicocele is among the leaders in the world in terms of advancing the knowledge base of the adolescent varicocele in the medical literature and in the number of adolescent varicocelectomies performed at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

Varicocele can be defined as varicose veins of the testicle. Varicoceles in the adolescent are usually found on routine school or camp examinations and are totally without symptoms. On occasion there can be heaviness in the scrotum, but rarely is there any testicular pain.

The incidence of varicocele in the adolescent population is about 15 percent worldwide. A varicocele is associated with a time dependent growth arrest of the affected testis in adolescent and adult males. There is a clear association between varicocele, testicular growth retardation and infertility. It is well known that repair of a varicocele can reverse the growth arrest of the testis in adolescent boys.

One out of every seven males has a varicocele that is usually of no clinical significance. "Our job job is to identify which are the ones that are clinically significant," notes Dr. Kenneth Glassberg, Chief of Pediatric Urology. "We use Doppler ultrasound as an integral methodology to help determine who needs surgery because of its predictive value of what will happen in the future."

Varicocele is rarely seen before 11 years of age. "It accounts for 15 percent of the adolescent and adult male population," notes Dr. Glassberg. It is known that not all varicoceles effect fertility potential. However, according to Dr. Glassberg, since adolescents do not present with infertility issues, two questions about surgical correction need to be addressed. Should prophylactic repair be performed to protect fertility potential in the future, and what should be the timing of repair. Is it better to do a varicocele repair in an adolescent with growth retardation or wait until a semen analysis might document fertility impairment?

"If it does affect sperm count, once it does do that in a couple when trying to achieve paternity, surgery is only effective surgery 40 percent of the time," says Dr. Glassberg. "So we feel by identifying those adolescents who have more of a potential of having an infertility problem in the future. We try to identify who needs the surgery; or maybe even more importantly, who doesn't need the surgery Our expertise is in laparoscopic varicocelectomy, where we preserve the lymphatic vessels. To date we have done more than 500 procedures at our Center."

For more information on adolescent varicoceles, please refer to the links above right.