Reassurance for vasectomised men

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 34

Reassurance for vasectomised men

NZPA-AP Los Angeles The 424,000 American men a year who get vasectomies for birth control are no more likely than other men to develop Jieart disease, cancer, or other illnesses, a study says. The only health problem seen significantly more frequently in the men with vasectomies was inflammation of a sperm-collecting duct near the testicles, a minor problem for about 1 per cent of the men who have vasectomies. The study, the largest of its type, should reassure millions of vasectomised men that they have no reason to be concerned about developing any health problem related to the surgeiy, said Dr Gerald Bernstein, a University of Southern California obstetriciangynaecologist. Dr Bernstein and 20 other scientists examined the health of 10,590 men who had vasectomies and 10,590 who did not, and their findings “don’t support any of the suggestions of long-term problems developing after vasectomy, including heart disease,” he said in an inter-

view. The surgeries took place an average of about eight years before the study, and so further research would determine if the findings held for longer, Dr Bernstein said. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by researchers at U.S.C., the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Minnesota, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The men in the study lived in Los Angeles, Eureka, Minneapolis, and Rochester. In the late 19705, studies at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Centre found that vasectomies worsened hardening of the arteries in monkeys, raising the possibility that vasectomies might increase the risk of heart disease. But the possibility of heart disease and other adverse health effects in men with vasectomies has been discounted by several studies. Dr Bernstein said the latest study involved the largest number of men. One-half to two-thirds of

men who have vasectomies develop antibodies against their own sperm. That prompted theories that vasectomy-caused changes in the body’s disease-fight-ing immune system might lead to cancer and other ailments. But the study found no link between vasectomy and many diseases. They included cancer, asthma, anaemia, hepatitis, cirrhosis, colitis, diabetes, lupus, hyperthyroidism, gout, arthritis, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis and cardiovascular problems such as heart attack, heart pain, stroke, phlebitis, hardening of the arteries, and the formation of artery-blocking clots. The new study did raise some questions. It found a 50 per cent higher over-all death rate and a doubled cancer death rate among the non-vasectomised men compared with those who received vasectomies. But there were so few deaths that these findings were not statistically significant and required further research, Dr Bernstein said.