I’ve been looking around at other vasectomy blogs. There are a couple of items that I’ve picked up I’d like to share:-
Did you know that there is an official way of grading erectile function? Nor did I until recently! It’s called the International index of erectile function (IIEF). It’s used in a newly published study that looks at sexual function before, and after vasectomy.
Researchers looked at 64 men who were going to have a vasectomy. The men were assessed prior to the vasectomy, and 90 days afterwards. The average age of patients was 35 with 3 children.
The average score using the IIEF test was 64.06 before, and 65.64 after vasectomy. The researchers consider this to be statistically significant. Desire and sexual satisfaction gave significant improvements. Overall the researchers concluded that the study results showed that vasectomy caused a positive impact on sexual function in the majority of men who had a vasectomy.
I’m sure we all remember the way they administered injections in Star Trek – place the device against the skin, press the trigger and it’s done. No Needles. Well, Sci-fi becomes reality. Back in May 2005, a study was published in Canada detailing the use of a high pressure spray to administer the local anaesthetic for vasectomy. The study showed that the technique was effective, patients liked it and it used less anaesthetic to be effective.
In the last few days a newer study and availability of the technique has been announced. The guy behind the new study is Dr. Marc Goldstein of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center’s Department of Urology. Dr Goldstein is responsible for bringing the No Scalpel technique to the west from China, and has been at the cutting edge of vasectomy research for some years. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell is the first and only site in the Northeast to offer the new technique.
OK – so you’ve had the vasectomy and life didn’t turn out how you planned, and you now want to start a family with a new partner. What are the options and chances? This new study published November 2005 makes a comparison of cost effectiveness and results between assisted reproduction techniques and vasectomy reversal. Which is cheapest and which works best to produce offspring?
It would appear that Men in Serbia are lining up to have electric shocks delivered to their testicles as part of a new contraceptive treatment. Serbian fertility expert Dr. Sava Bojovic, who runs one of the clinics offering the service, said the small electric shock makes men temporarily infertile by stunning their sperm into a state of immobility. The electrodes are attached to either side of the testicles and send low electricity currents flowing through them. The claim is that this stuns the sperm, effectively putting them to sleep for up to 10 days, which means couples can have sex without fear of getting pregnant.
No formal data collection system exists in the USA to collect and collate the number of sterilizations performed annually. The current oft-quoted figure of 500,000 vasectomies performed per year is not an accurate count – it’s an extrapolation of various smaller studies and surveys. However, most people accept that it’s likely to be accurate. It equates to approximately 11% of the population relying on vasectomy as their primary method of birth control.
This new study was undertaken by the Department of health & Human Services. The data was collected in 2002, and the paper was published on November 18, 2005. Basically, it’s in the form of a telephone questionnaire, and there were a total of 174,026 men and women to men and women in all US states and dependencies participating in the study.
Men and women answered differently. Both men and women reported Tubal Ligation equally, men had higher percentages for vasectomy and condom use, and women had higher percentage for the pill, and lower percentage for vasectomy and condom use. The statistics below are a combination of the percentages for man and women by state.
Vasectomy was most used in Washington (25.9%), and least used in the US Virgin Islands (3.7%). Overall, the results for primary method of birth control were:-
Pill 28.3%
Tubal ligation 22.9%
Condom 17.3%
Vasectomy 16.1%
In light of these figures, the 500,000 / 11% figures are likely to be under-estimates. I have summarised the stats here.
I really have no idea as to why this topic is the subject of research any longer!