Vasectomy does not increase the risk of prostate cancer
Does vasectomy really not increase the risk of prostate cancer? Despite numerous studies, no link has been documented so far between vasectomy and an increased risk of prostate cancer. Vasectomy also does not increase the risk of heart disease or immune system disorders in men.
What it certainly does increase is a man’s attentiveness to his own health. As a result, in situations that look suspicious, he ends up in front of a doctor sooner. Because men after a vasectomy take better care of their health, they have preventive check-ups more often.
Consequently, more diseases are detected in them. Often at an earlier stage than in patients who do not like visiting doctors. More of their diseases are also treated successfully, because the sooner a disease is diagnosed and the sooner treatment begins, the lower the toll on the patient’s body and the easier the recovery.
Prostate cancer is, alongside lung cancer, the most frequently detected cancer in men, accounting for around 13% of all male cancer cases. That does not, however, make it the biggest killer – it is much easier to die with prostate cancer than of prostate cancer, because by its nature it is not a particularly aggressive cancer: only 16% of men with prostate cancer die because of it, and cure statistics improve for patients every year thanks to the introduction of new, more effective treatments. Of course, once detected, the cancer must be monitored continuously, not left to itself.
So what is all the fuss about? Over a decade ago, results of studies were published in the United Kingdom on the level of T* (an androgen, the male sex hormone) in men after vasectomy, which suggested that in some men the level of this hormone rises slightly after a vasectomy.
At the time, a higher T level was cited as one of the risk factors for developing prostate cancer. However, none of the subsequent studies confirmed this hypothesis.
* The initial of the name of the well-known androgenic hormone, produced in every healthy human – including women – is used here rather than the full name, because Google’s robots, and the Polish employees of that company, seem to think this text encourages the purchase of a drug by that name.