Pituitary and gonadal hormones in patients with varicocele

Peripheral vein luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, testosterone, and estradiol, and spermatic vein testosterone and estradiol levels were determined in 13 subfertile men with clinically diagnosed varicoceles, 5 patients with idiopathic infertility, and 13 control patients. Testis biopsies and semen analyses were also performed on most of the infertile patients and some of the controls. Secretion of both gonadal steroids and pituitary gonadotropins was normal in the subfertile men with varicoceles. It appears likely that mechanisms other than abnormal reproductive hormonal factors are responsible for the altered spermiograms and decreased fertility of such patients.