Added: 11/23/2006 |
The Early Research on Vasectomy ComplicationsThe early research on vasectomy complications took place long before the appearance of a way to carry-out a vasectomy reversal. The scientists who devoted time and effort to collecting the data from that research did not foresee the future ads for vasectomy reversals. Still, those scientists would probably not have been surprised to learn that some of the largest ads appeared along the highway outside of Las Vegas, NV.
The research laboratory where I worked used to receive blood samples from men who had had a vasectomy. I helped to prepare those samples for analysis through the use of the available radioimmunoassay (RIA) equipment. Back then, due to the absence of prepared kits, scientists who wanted to look for vasectomy complications needed to rely on data from a large RIA machine.
That machine would print out a long list of figures—figures that had come from the detection devices inside the RIA machine. By doing specific calculations on those figures, the scientists in the laboratory could look for hormonal changes. The presence of such changes would signal a need for further study. The presence of such changes could be a sign of vasectomy complications.
The Houston researchers managed to gather a large pool of blood samples. They arranged for an RIA to be completed on each sample. The researchers planned to follow-up on each RIA by watching closely for evidence that any of the male subjects with similar hormone levels also had future medical problems, especially problems of a like nature.
Early research on vasectomy complications, such as that pursued in Houston, allowed scientists to determine the chance for any man who had had a vasectomy to later encounter medical problems. The possibility of such problems did not seem to reduce the interest of local males in receiving a vasectomy. In fact, the possibility of such problems might well have faded, when contrasted to the praise of that technique by some of the men who had agreed to undergo the procedure.
Early and more recent research has shown that about 3% of men who have undergone a vasectomy will suffer granuloma. That condition is caused by sperm leakage, a leakage that can follow a vasectomy. Roughly 1% of the men who have undergone a vasectomy will later complain about an inflammation of the tube connected to the vas.
The scientists working where I first leaned about research related to vasectomy complications no doubt had a special interest in one further problem that could accompany a vasectomy. In some men the body produced antibodies to any leaked sperm. Over time, those antibodies could decrease the chance that a vasectomy reversal would lead to a restoration of the man’s fertility.
That fact certainly caught the attention of any scientists involved with research on reproductive biology. That fact must have received a mention in one or more of the lunch table conversations at the facility where I once worked. After all, many of those conversations centered on these topics: homosexuals, vasectomy, pregnancy and sex change operations.
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