Harvard Scientists have followed 49,400 males for 24 years starting in 1986 and shown that the 25% of the men in the study who had had a vasectomy, had a 10% higher risk of prostate cancer than those who had not had the clip (August 2014, Journal of Clinical Oncology; online). The group also had a 205 higher risk of advanced prostate cancer and a 19% increased risk of dying from it.
The risk was greater where the men had had the operation at a younger age.
The findings have been dismissed by experts as ‘small’.
SOURCE: Harvard School of Public Health, news release, July 9, 2014