Q: My 30 years old relative has undergone bilateral varicocoele surgery recently. His semen analysis shows severe oligospermia with the count of 0.3 millions/ml. Would this surgery help him? Is in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment effective in such cases?

A:Your friend will have to wait for three months before result of the varicocoele surgery may be apparent. Improvement in semen quality is expected in up to 70% of men undergoing varicocoele correction. ICSI is a type of in vitro fertilization (IVF) where one sperm is injected directly into one egg to fertilise it. This is useful for men with even very low sperm counts. Sometimes it is possible to retrieve a few sperms from men who have none seen on semen analysis, by taking a testicular biopsy under anaesthesia. IVF, though, is an expensive and psychologically intensive undertaking, not without risks. The overall success rate is 15% to 20% per cycle.