What happens to sperm after vasectomy?
At first they build up in the testicular side of the vas and in the epididymis, which may swell slightly. With nowhere to go, sperm die and disintegrate. After a while sperm production becomes reduced. Some men develop antibodies to their sperm, but these have no harmful effects on health.
How effective is vasectomy?
In experienced hands failures are rare -about one in a thousand and most of these are picked up during semen testing after the operation. Long-term failures because the ends of the vas grow together again are around two in ten thousand.
Side-effects and complications
There are no side-effects. Men must be assured that vasectomy has no effect on hormone production or sexual function. The amount, taste and smell of the ejaculate are unchanged (sperm contribute only a tiny fraction to the volume of semen produced).
Vasectomy is one of the safest surgical operations. Minor post-operative complications include wound infection, which usually settles quickly with antibiotics, and haematoma (collection of blood under the skin) of the scrotum. Both are uncommon. Post-operative infection of the epididymis or testis is rare, but any painful swelling of the testis should prompt a check with the surgeon.
An uncommon late complication of vasectomy is the formation of a lump in the scrotum called a sperm granuloma. These lumps can form as a reaction to sperm leaking from the epididymis or vas into the surrounding tissue. They are usually small, painless and harmless, and are not noticed by the man though they have been found by doctors up to 25 years after vasectomy.
During the past decade there have been a few media scares: could vasectomy к to long-term risk of health problems such as enlargement or cancer of the prostate, blood-vessel disease and heart attacks? Subsequent large studies on the heal men who have had vasectomies up more than 30 years ago have shown increased risk of these problems, but because vasectomy is relatively new, fun studies are needed to discover or disprove whether there really are any longer-term adverse effects.
Reversal of sterilisation
About one in fifty people who’ve been sterilised will later request reversal. More than seven out of ten of these people are in new relationships at the rime oil request. More than half of the women been sterilised straight after childbirth abortion. Whether or not it’s worth attempting reversal depends on how tube or vas was blocked. Microsurgical techniques have improved the success rate of reversal, and some surgeons have reported a success rate in selected case up to 70 per cent for both men and women in terms of pregnancies achieved. Studies on men who have had vasectomies and request reversal have shown that the chance of a return to fertility reduced with each year that passes after the operation. Within three years of vasectomy, pregnancies follow three-quarters of reversal procedures. After 15 years, the pregnancy rate drops to less than
one-third.
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