[The effect of varicocele on male fertility with particular consideration of progressive motility (author's transl)].

Two-hundred patients with varicocele were examined for fertility, which was found to have diminished in 75% of the cases because of a decreased sperm count (less than 40 million/ml); 40% of these, the largest group (categorized only with regard to oligospermia), had a sperm count of 21--40 million/ml. The most remarkable finding was restrained fertility in 90% of the cases because of decreased progressive motility (speed of forward progression). Here, the largest group (nearly 50%) was in the category of 21--30%. Decreased progressive motility was mostly combined with a diminished sperm count to an oligoasthenospermia. In 20% of the cases, however, fertility was restrained only by decreased progressive motility in the sense of an asthenospermia. The first effect, due to varicocele, is seen in decreased progressive motility. However, because spermatozoa acquire their progressive motility by means of maturation in the epididymis, the varicocele causes the first damage to the epididymis.