The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

25 March 2007

Going against the flow

One particular flavor of dementia may be linked to vasectomy:

A recent study by Northwestern University researchers revealed that men with a rare kind of dementia are more likely to have had a vasectomy than those who do not have cognitive problems. Called Primary Progressive Aphasia, or PPA, this dementia affects an individual's ability to express himself, impairing word recall and ability to understand words. The research was published in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology.

Current theory:

A blood-testes barrier exists, just like a blood-brain barrier exists. Post-vasectomy, that protective blood-testes barrier is broken, and semen enters the blood. "Sixty to 70 percent of men will develop antibodies which try to kill the sperm," [Dr Sandra] Weintraub explained, as the immune system views the sperm as foreign agents. "The question is whether these antibodies are somehow interacting with the brain, too," thus creating damage resulting in PPA.

I suppose what I really want to know is how long it takes for all this to happen, inasmuch as I had my snip job twenty-six years ago and I am way saner now than I was then.

Come to think of it, I've had a few dates who viewed sperm as invasive, but that's another issue.

(Via Jay from Blogblivion.)

Posted at 9:40 AM to Dyssynergy


Hm. From the abstract of the paper, they don't mention anything about also testing the patients with PPA for the presence of antibodies for the tau protein (the protein that's shared between neurons and sperm). So without that piece of info, PPA and vasectomy correlation could just be a statistical anomaly.

Posted by: sya at 12:29 PM on 25 March 2007

Wouldn't be the first time that trees got in the way of someone's forest observations, I daresay.

Posted by: CGHill at 1:00 PM on 25 March 2007

"So without that piece of info, PPA and vasectomy correlation could just be a statistical anomaly."

Dear god I hope so, else I am SO boned.

Posted by: Bill Peschel at 3:51 PM on 25 March 2007

But how does it compare to all the forms of dementia tied to having kids?

Posted by: Terry at 4:15 PM on 25 March 2007

Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your kids.

Posted by: unimpressed at 10:24 PM on 27 March 2007