If pain doesn't begin until months or years after the operation, it could be a build-up of sperm in the epididymis - a long, tightly coiled tube that's normally connected to the vas deferens that carries sperm out of the testicle.Īfter the vas deferens is cut, sperm can build up in the epididymis, causing pressure and pain. Steroid injections can help reduce inflammation. The proportion of vasectomy reversals that successfully lead to pregnancy 'This can produce scarring as it settles down and if this is in the vicinity of nerve endings, the scarring can lead to nerve pain.' 'Sperm is an irritant so the leakage of tiny amounts of sperm sets up an inflammatory reaction. However, sometimes microscopic amounts leak out into the surrounding tissue, explains Christopher Eden, a consultant urologist at The Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford. Sometimes it heals itself or it may need further surgery.Īfter a vasectomy the sperm are just re-absorbed by the body. This can lead to inflammation and swelling of the surrounding nerves, known as a neuroma. Post-vasectomy pain can be caused by damage to nerves inside the testicles during surgery. 'But apart from those who may have had previous surgery in the scrotum area, you can't predict who will suffer from it as there are no classic risk factors.' But there are other risks associated with the procedure - it's estimated one in ten men who have had a vasectomy suffer long-term testicular pain, says Vijay Sangar, a consultant urological surgeon at the Wythenshawe and Christie hospitals in Manchester. researchers said the study only established a statistical link between the operation and the disease, not a causal one. And even if there were, it's an extremely low incidence of cancer in the study.' 'Previous research has consistently found no link between the two. However this was an 'isolated study,' says Paul Cathcart, a consultant urologist and specialist in prostate cancer at University College Hospital and Barts Hospital in London. I was astonished when I was finally told the cause.'Ĭolin's symptoms started as niggling, occasional discomfort in one or both testicles every few months 'I've seen countless doctors over the years and not one associated testicular pain with the fact I'd had a vasectomy. But over the intervening years, what started as niggling, occasional discomfort in one or both testicles every few months, has gradually built up to sometimes unbearable levels of pain. Having come to parenthood 'a little late', the couple felt their family was complete and the decision for Colin to have a vasectomy came easily. What's remarkable about Colin's situation is that his vasectomy isn't recent - he had the procedure 22 years ago, at the age of 41 when his son, Christopher, now 24, was 18 months old, and daughter, Suzanna, now 22, was six months. But after the drugs wear off, the pain comes back.' I had no choice but to take ibuprofen for the pain and go to bed.
'My testicles felt really engorged, I thought they might burst out - it was just awful. A few weeks ago, it came on really strongly and lasted two or three days. 'It gets in the way of even the simplest things in life, such as a round of golf or a countryside walk with Marie. 'But the pain is on and off all the time now - it builds up slowly over a couple of days, can last a few days and then subsides again to a low level for anything from a week to a month. 'I've always been a grit-your-teeth kind of person,' says Colin, who lives in Sandhurst, Berkshire. An ache that, until recently, he didn't realise was connected to his operation.
The 63-year-old and his wife Marie, 59, have no desire to extend their family beyond their two existing, now grown-up children.īut Colin wants to put an end to the dull, sometimes burning but always painful, ache he has sporadically suffered since surgery. So much so, that he's now steeling himself to have this surgical form of male contraception reversed.īut the reason for this change of heart has nothing to do with recurring pangs for fatherhood. There have been many times when Colin Davis has had cause to regret having a vasectomy. Colin Davis had a vastectomy 22 years ago
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