Doctor downplaying my varicocele (please help)

I finally went to the urologist today after having a varicocele for several years, now grade 3 (looks like a bag of worms visibly from the outside). It’s been causing me occasional pain, seems to have made my testes smaller, and negatively affected my sperm production. When I showed the doc, he said it’s probably stage 1 or less, super common and nothing to worry about. I told him it’s probably just because the office is super cold, so my balls are all shrunken up and constricted. I insisted to him there are times such as after a hot shower when my balls are hanging low, there are a large amount of big veins visible from the outside (indicative of grade 3). He said no, a grade 3 varicocele is always visible at all times and doesn’t change because that’s not how the veins work. I’ve seen several people on Reddit claim otherwise, and how their grade 3 varicoceles are sometimes not detectable when they are cold/nervous whatever. I wanted to explain to him how mine usually doesn’t look like this, but he wouldn’t let me get a word in, kept talking over me insisting it’s all perfectly normal only stage 1, blah blah blah, doctors know everything I guess. He did refer me for an ultrasound in about a month, but I’m concerned it won’t matter what the results are because he claims “every guy shows a varicocele on an ultrasound”. He won’t take me seriously for whatever reason, maybe because I’m young (22). I really just want to get an embolization to get it fixed but doc says I won’t need it. Anyone have advice on what I can do???

Posted Aug 14, 2024, 2:03 AM UTC

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