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Last week, I realized that patients coming to my office seeking vasectomies required an additional piece in their counselling. What led to this change? Earlier this month a study out of Harvard University suggested an association between vasectomy and lethal prostate cancer.

Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the researchers found that “men with a history of vasectomy had a 10% increased risk of prostate cancer, with a 19% higher risk of a more lethal form of the disease.”

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At first glance the study sounds quite frightening, particularly when one considers that vasectomy is a common form of birth control, with prevalence rates of more than 10% across the industrialized world. Over my 19-year career I have done approximately 2,200 vasectomies. First conducted successfully on a canine subject in the early 19th century, the modern “no-scalpel” method can typically be completed within a few minutes.