[Infertility and varicocele through history].

Objectives: To perform a historical review of varicocele and male infertility with the aim to find descriptions that first related them. In parallel, we review the evolution of treatment for varicocele up to date.
Methods/results: We refer to multiple authors and their treaties on Medicine, from first to 20th Century, in which descriptions of these pathologies are found, focusing on descriptions of the surgical technique for treatment of varicocele and their application in Spain.
Conclusions: Varicocele was already described in treaties from the first century having bee of n its treatment predominantly surgical from the first description to our days. Not identified as a cause of infertility until late, by the end of the 19th century, it is the main indication for treatment nowadays. The surgical technique has suffered many modifications over time, both in the approach as in the "radicality" of a vascular ligature applied.