It’s possible vasectomy approval just got a whole lot easier. The good old days of providing multiple semen samples over several months to test for motile sperm could be over. With new testing procedures, up to 96% of men could be given the green light based on a single test three months after surgery.
New research out of The Netherlands and published in the urology journal BJUI outlined new procedures which reveal the effectiveness of a single test. The article shows that 51% of the 1,073 samples from newly vasectomized men contained no sperm. Of the remaining samples, 45% contained less than 100,000 immotile (useless ergo harmless) sperm. This group of men, 96% of the test subjects, was cleared after the single test and there has been no paternity reported from the group a year later.
While vasectomy is easy in almost every way, “One of the major drawbacks is that a considerable number of men still have a few immotile sperm in their semen for a year or more. Conventional guidelines have stated that clearance can only be given to men who provide one or two sperm-free sample. The fear of legal action if pregnancy does occur has led to very conservative vasectomy protocols. However, our study - based on guidelines issued by the Dutch Urological Association - shows that one semen test is adequate to provide clearance in the vast majority of cases,” said co-author Dr. Herman van Roijen from St. Elisabeth Hospital in The Netherlands.
It’s an easy two step process: The first step is a wet analysis of the semen samples. I’m guessing that means exactly what it sounds like. This test cleared 51% of the men who were sperm free and an additional 41% which contained less than 50 immotile sperm. In the second step, samples from the remaining 7% were then tested using a Neubauer Hemocytometer (a special microscope used for counting cells in volumes of fluid) and this test resulted in an additional 3% being cleared. Only 4% of the men were told to hold off for further testing. 96% raced home.
“If the guidelines now being employed in The Netherlands were adopted elsewhere, it could dramatically increase the number of men who could be cleared three months after a vasectomy, having provided just one sample” says Dr. van Roijen. Undoubtedly, this is news the world has been waiting for.
Source: BJUI, Medical News Today
