FRIDAY, April 4 (HealthDay News) -- Varicocele, the most common correctable cause of male infertility, may be a hereditary condition as it is more prevalent among first-degree relatives, particularly brothers, of men with known varicocele, researchers report in the April issue of Urology.

Gholamreza Mokhtari, M.D., of Guilan University of Medical Science in Guilan, Iran, and colleagues conducted a study of 62 patients admitted for surgery to treat varicocele, who referred a total of 88 healthy first-degree relatives for examination. The control group comprised 100 men referred for voluntary kidney donation.

While 40 (45.4 percent) of the first-degree relatives had a clinically palpable varicocele, this was the case in only 11 (11 percent) of the controls, the investigators found. Of the 58 brothers, 32 (55.1 percent) had clinically palpable varicoceles, as did eight out of the 30 fathers (26.6 percent).

"Men with undiagnosed varicocele are at risk of impaired spermatogenesis and steroidogenesis, which may contribute to future infertility and premature androgen deficiency," the authors write. "Clinical varicoceles are more prevalent among the first-degree relatives (particularly brothers) of patients with known varicoceles and may be an indicator of hereditary behavior of the disease, warranting more investigation in this regard and counseling about this increased risk in the male family members of patients."

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