Men Who Have Vasectomies May Have a Higher Chance of Dementia

Researchers announced Tuesday that men who have had a vasectomy are at an increased risk of developing dementia. As a result they often appeared to have trouble with language skills and the problem continued to get worse over time.

This rare kind of dementia is known to be progressive, fast acting with little improvement to be made. How did researchers make the connection between a vasectomy and this disorder? They surveyed 47 men with this form of Dementia who were being treated at Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's disease Center and 57 men who did not suffer from the condition.

40 percent of the men questioned had both the progressive aphasia and had undergone a vasectomy. 16% of the men who had the condition had not been sterilized. Other data also indicated a possible connection between men who had vasectomies with another form of dementia that affected that includes behavioral changes.

Because of the study's small size, researchers concluded that a larger group would need to be examined before more information would become available. Men interested in a vasectomy should be aware of the risks involved; including claims related to dementia but should also consider all aspects including the benefits of the procedure.

Sandra Wintraub led the recent study and hopes to expand it nationally to see what if any correlation truly exists. She says the first thought of association between the two came after a patient complained a few years after he had the vasectomy. That sparked an interest into whether or not a connection was possible.

Progressive Aphasia, a form of dementia is often found in men over the age of 50 and can be confused with Alzheimer's as the initial symptoms are similar. With this type of aphasia language skills begin to diminish over time as nerve endings die that make connections in the brain. The condition does not have a reversal or cure at this time and tends to progress quickly. Problems include language comprehension; remember names and places, reading and writing skills and overall difficulties with speech and communication.

Thousands of men undergo vasectomies each year as a way of male sterilization. The vas deferens tube is cut, keeping sperm from getting to the testes and thus they never meet up with the female's egg.

While the study didn't specifically look into the issue of why a vasectomy could be linked to progressive aphasia, some say it may be because the actual surgical procedure allows sperm to be absorbed into the bloodstream. When this happens it is likely that the body begins to produce antibodies as a result and this process could trigger the some type of damage, causing dementia.

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URL: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/02/13/vasectomy.dementia.reut/index.html