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Cancer and cardiovascular disease after vasectomy: an epidemiological database study.

Goldacre MJ, Wotton CJ, Seagroatt V, Yeates D

Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. michael.goldacre@dphpc.ox.ac.uk

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether vasectomy is associated with an increased long-term risk of cancer or cardiovascular disease. DESIGN: Analysis of database of linked statistical records of hospital admissions and deaths. SETTING: Health region in southern England. PATIENT(S): Men aged 20-59 years who were admitted to a hospital for vasectomy. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease compared with the corresponding rates in a reference cohort, expressed as a rate ratio. RESULT(S): We found no elevation of risk, after vasectomy, of prostate cancer (rate ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45-1.14) or other cancers. The rate ratio for coronary heart disease overall after vasectomy was 0.95 (95% CI 0.88-1.02); and the rate ratio > or =20 years after vasectomy was 0.98 (95% CI 0.80-1.19). CONCLUSION(S): Our findings add to the evidence that vasectomy is not associated with an increase in the long-term risk of these diseases.

Published 8 November 2005 in Fertil Steril, 84(5): 1438-43.
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