Vasectomy linked to dementia?
Posted on Feb 16th 2007 11:02AM by Jonathon Morgan
A recent study has found that men who have a vasectomy could be at higher risk of developing a rare kind of dementia.
The neurological condition, in which language skills slowly deteriorate, is called primary progressive aphasia, or PPA. Researchers at Northwestern University have PPA to male sterilization. In the study, 40 percent of men suffering from PPA had undergone a vasectomy, compared with only 16 percent of their healthy counterparts.
Sandra Weintraub, who led the study, hopes the findings won't stop men from getting vasectomies, saying: "I was hoping not to, but unfortunately it's the kind of news that ends up scaring people even though they may not need to be scared."
While larger studies need to be conducted to conclusively demonstrate a link, Weintraub speculates that a possible cause could be sperm leaking into the blood during sterilization surgery. Antibodies that were subsequently released into the immune in response to the sperm may cause damage that could eventually lead to PPA.
