Varicocele

[bingo1999]

A lot of the time my left teste feels swollen and like there is a bag around it, feels very different to the right one and is twice the size, when it isn't like this, the left is smaller than the right one. I did some research on it and I am sure that I have varicocele i must of had it for at least two years I am 16 now, the reason it is worrying me is that it might affect whether or not I will be able to have children in the future as I have also smoked and eaten cannabis in the past but only on 5 separate days, I don't know whether I should go to the doctor or not

[Rod Grundy]

Thanks for your e-mail.

I would recommend that you make an appointment to see your Doctor as soon as you can so he can examine your testicle to establish exactly what is causing the swelling. It may possibly be a variocele; varioceles do tend to affect the lest testicle more commonly than the right. Also you say it feels very different to the other testicle, a variocele is often described as feeling like "a bag of worms". Varioceles have been linked to infertility in men, they can increase the temperature of the testicle which can lead to a reduction in the number of viable sperm but lots of men with varioceles still father children. Commonly surgery used to be performed to remove varioceles to hopefully increase fertility, however there is no evidence that this is effective.

Probably best to stop using cannabis; there are numerous health risks associated with using cannabis and there are plenty of studies that provide evidence that cannabis causes the production of abnormal sperm which in turn leads to a reduction in fertility.

Hope this information is helpful, please get back in touch if you require any more information and make sure you go and see your Doctor.

Best wishes,

Rod.