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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2003;289:2929.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A new study by researchers in the Netherlands and Canada has found that a common treatment for impaired fertility in men appears to be largely ineffective (Lancet. 2003;361:1849-1852).

Up to 15% of men are believed to have varicoceles, dilated veins in the scrotum that can cause testicular damage and result in decrease quantity and quality of sperm. Although its efficacy has not been clearly demonstrated in clinical trials, varicocele repair is a widely used treatment in men with impaired fertility.

In the study, the researchers reanalyzed data from seven trials published between 1979 and 2002 on varicocele repair and its effect on fertility. There were 61 pregnancies among 281 subfertile couples assigned to varicocele repair compared with 50 pregnancies among 259 controls (assigned to no treatment, delayed treatment, or counseling), an increased pregnancy rate of only 1% among the couples in the treatment group.

"Varicocele . . . [Full Text of this Article]