EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have determined vasectomies might place some men at risk for an unusual form of dementia.
Northwestern University researchers discovered men with primary progressive aphasia -- a neurological disease in which people have trouble recalling and understanding words -- have a higher rate of vasectomy than men the same age who are cognitively normal.
Psychiatry Professor Sandra Weintraub, principal investigator in the study, began investigating a possible link between the surgery and PPA when one of her male patients connected the onset of his language problem at age 43 to the period after his vasectomy.
Weintraub and colleagues surveyed 47 men with PPA and 57 men with no cognitive impairment. Of the non-impaired men, 16 percent had undergone a vasectomy. In contrast, 40 percent of the men with PPA had had the surgery.
"That's a huge difference," said Weintraub, director of neuropsychology in Northwestern's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer s Disease Center. "It doesn't mean having a vasectomy will give you this disease but it may be a risk factor to increase your chance of getting it."
The study was published in the journal Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology.
