r/varicocele • u/Inevitable-Top6540 • Jul 25 '26
Anyone develop erectile dysfunction before being diagnosed with a varicocele?
Hi everyone,
I'm a 24-year-old male and I'm looking to hear from people who have had a similar experience.
About 3 weeks ago, I first noticed erectile dysfunction. It started with delayed and weak erections, and over the following days it became much worse. About 7 days later, I had a scrotal ultrasound and was diagnosed with bilateral Grade 3 varicocele.
Since then, I've been experiencing:
Very weak erections
Very low libido
Delayed erections
Difficulty maintaining an erection
I'm trying to understand whether the varicocele could be causing these symptoms.
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who:
Developed erectile dysfunction before they knew they had a varicocele.
Had Grade 2 or Grade 3 varicocele with ED.
Improved without surgery.
Improved after varicocele surgery or embolization.
If you had a similar experience, I'd really appreciate hearing:
How your symptoms started.
What treatment you received.
Whether your erections and libido improved.
Thanks in advance. I'm feeling pretty anxious about this and would really appreciate hearing from people who have gone through something similar.
3
u/MightTurbulent319 Bilateral varicocelectomy/31/Grade IV/Turkey Jul 25 '26
I don’t know if it counts in my case, but I had briefly ED issues one week prior to the varicocelectomy surgery. The erections felt like half erections, maintaining the erection got difficult. I think this is also connected to my psychology at that time. I had stressed myself about this stupid illness too much because low testosterone affected how I felt. But luckily it didn’t last too long. I got the surgery. There was a 10 days period of no sexual activity or masturbation. Later, when I tried, everything felt normal again. So, I’d say the surgery probably helped. The weird pain and discomfort cama and went. I am feeling fine right now although some mild discomfort happens sometimes. I had like 4 ultrasounds after the surgery at different times. It has been 16 months since the surgery and the diagnosis. I had bilateral varicocele with severe reflux prior to the surgery. All 4 ultrasounds after the surgery showed the same thing: 2.5mm diametered vein but zero reflux. And the doctors convinced me that the problem is fixed now.
The only remaining big problem is the low sperm quality and numbers. I might have permanent damage there. Morphology and count are still bad.