Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
The spermatic cord, which supplies blood to and returns blood from the testicle, houses the vas deferens, which carries sperm from the testicles. The pampiniform plexus is a group of veins within the scrotum and above the testicles. The pampiniform plexus drains blood from the testicles. Enlargement of these veins often occurs during puberty.
It's not certain what causes varicoceles, but many experts believe abnormal valves within the veins prevent normal blood flow. The resulting backup causes the veins to widen (dilate).
Varicoceles usually occur in the region of the left testicle, most likely because of the position of the left testicular vein. However, a varicocele in one testicle can affect sperm production in both testicles.
