posted on Mar, 28 2010 @ 06:00 AM
My wife informed me that a family friend has recently had a vasectomy after he and his wife pumped out three kids in three years. Now this got me
think for one particular reason.
I am the forth of eight children and my father who was recently diagnosed, treated and cleared with prostate cancer had a vasectomy in 1994. I
pondered today, perhaps there was a link. Because to my knowledge the tubes are tied but you still produce sperm, they just can't go anywhere. Could
this be a problem?
I started searching....
There have been many studies on the risks involved with vasectomy & yes there is a link. But the link has yet to be identified and therefore written
off as inconclusive & or inconsistent.
The link that was identified is that men who have had a vasectomy are more likely to get the regular screenings for prostate cancer and therefore are
more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. This in itself appears inconsistant because the laws of probability are influenced by too many
unappropriate factors like who gets screened and who doesn't.
Some interesting info from
The Association Between Vasectomy and Prostate
Cancer
Some studies have shown that men who have had a vasectomy are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. These studies were done by looking
back at the lives of men who had prostate cancer and determining whether they had previously had a vasectomy or not. They showed that an association
between having a vasectomy and prostate cancer did exist, but they could not explain why this existed.
Men with prior vasectomies have more contact with their urologist than average men and are more likely to get PSA testing at the appropriate age. This
increases their chances of having prostate cancer detected simply because they are being tested for it.
***
What it does not mean is that men with vasectomies necessarily actually have more prostate cancer, just that they are more likely to be diagnosed with
prostate cancer (in other words, more likely that their prostate cancer will be found).
This last part is what really pricked my attention
Additionally, the major urological and cancer organizations no longer suggest that physicians discuss the risk of prostate cancer with men who
are thinking about vasectomy.
My conclusion is because the link cannot be identified and the reason for the risk inconclusive there must be no risk at all.
However after reading
Vasectomy: A Prostate Cancer Risk?
We probably won't have a definitive answer to the vasectomy/prostate cancer question before 2015 when we get results of the National Cancer
Institute's Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, which began in 1992 and is evaluating risk factors for all these
disease. In the meantime, I wouldn't worry too much about the risk vasectomy may pose.
I get the feeling that people aren't supposed to care about the risk. They say African Americans are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer than
white men! Why?>
Instead of pointing at a real problem, I see specialist just waving you in the opposite direction in a generalised manner. Why?> Because they don't
have the answer!
So, people may accuse me of taking information out of context and only taking information that suites me and that is fine. I went looking for an
answer and all I managed to find was a "..... prostate cancer? Don't worry about it!"
[edit on 28/3/10 by spearhead]