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Last Updated:
Jan 3rd, 2010 - 00:09:53
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Question
Is it posible that after having a vasectemy, that hormones change and can elevate and can cause irritable mood swings? I have found myself in this way the past 2 months. My vasectomy was in February, 2006.
Brian
Answer
Brian had a vasectomy about 18 months ago and wonders if the mood swings he is experiencing the last two months are in any way related.
I don’t have the study in front of me but at least one good paper looked at the levels of various hormones (including testosterone and estradiol) following vasectomy and did not find any significant change. So if there is a relationship one must look elsewhere.
Two things are certainly in place by one year after a vasectomy: The great majority of men (85% +) have developed circulating antibodies to their own sperm in their bloodstream and the ductal system (drainage system, if you will) of the testes has become distended with sperm that cannot escape. How these changes potentially affect the body is subject to endless speculation (Do the anti-sperm antibodies cause auto-immune disorders? Do obstructed testes cause chronic low-grade pain or somehow increase the chance of prostate cancer? Etc.) but little worthwhile laboratory experimentation has been done as yet.
Perhaps the problem is not one of physiology but rather psychology: After all a young man is now sterile and unable to sire any additional offspring. I believe this much more consequential than most people think.
Gregory Polito, MD
Gregory Polito, MD, KM, is President of the California Association of Natural Family Planning.
Dr. Polito is a urologist in private practice with vasovasostomy (vasectomy reversal) as a subspecialty.
He is a Member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, and Chair of Board Quality Committee at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, CA.
Click Here
to visit Dr. Polito's web site.
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