Cancer And Other Risks Of Vasectomy

Several hospital-based studies conducted in 1990 detected an association between vasectomy and an increased long-term risk of both prostate and testicular cancer. This review of the available population-based research evidence concludes that a causal association between vasectomy and urologic malignancies has not been proven. Inconsistencies in the results of various studies of vasectomy and prostate cancer the weakness of the association in the positive studies the failure of any study to rule out detection bias and the possibility for unidentified confounding support this conclusion. Moreover any such association lacks biologic plausibility. Clinical studies have found no support for the hypothesis that vasectomy stimulates the production of non-sperm-specific autoantibodies that cross-react with other tissues of the body. The possibility that the vasectomy effect occurs as a result of arteritis caused by circulating autoimmune complexes composed of sperm antigen and antisperm antibodies also lacks substantiation. Although vasectomy acceptors should be counseled to undergo prostate cancer detection after the age of 50 years there is no evidence to warrant any modifications in family planning policies related to vasectomy.