Do vasectomies increase the risk of prostate cancer and dementia?
A handful of studies in the early 1990s reported an association between vasectomy and prostate cancer, but a conclusive survey in New Zealand refuted the link. In 2006, a group of Northwestern University researchers published a study that seemed to link vasectomy and dementia. The study was prompted by a patient at an Alzheimer’s disease clinic who told doctors that his aphasia—problems with speech—had begun shortly after a vasectomy. A survey of 47 clinic patients with early aphasia found that 19 had had a vasectomy.
