 In most relationships, couples tend to disagree from time to time. This is certainly true at our house. My wife and I sometimes bicker over little things like how to fold a shirt correctly or the fact that I don’t fold my boxers or socks at all. Every now and then we will butt heads on which radio station to listen to when we are in the car. I keep telling her that the driver should get to pick and she always responds with a laugh. She laughs at me, not with me.
We also don’t always agree on bigger issues like politics. She is a registered Democrat and I am not registered with any party. I do not fully agree with the platforms of any party so I do not see the point in totally supporting them with a straight ticket vote. We have come to terms with the fact that we will not always see eye-to-eye on this and have agreed to disagree - even if we think the other is crazy.
There is one particular issue in which we completely agree. If we never agree on anything else for the rest of our lives I will be okay with that. I am not having a vasectomy. We shook hands on it. I fall in the vasectonotmy category of men. I know there are many of you men out there that have had one and some of you are my friends. Some of my friends are on the fence or have not yet “pulled the trigger” on the operation and I have one thing to say to you: DO NOT ASK ME TO GO WITH YOU IF YOU FIND A 2-FOR-1 SPECIAL.
The last place I want to be is on an operating table with a doctor hovering over my genitals with a blade. I would rather not have sex again for the rest of my life. Okay, so that is a little extreme but you get the point. My wife told me menopause is only about twenty years away, so she can wait until then. She was kidding, of course. I think.
My father always sends me stuff he finds on the Internet that I have yet to discover. The other day he sent me this article from Spero News about a link to aphasia, dementia, and men that had a vasectomy. Not that I needed another reason besides “Hell no” to avoid having my little swimmers taken away, but the article was very interesting and will probably send most of the fence-riders quickly jumping into the vasectonotmy camp. You can click the link above to read the entire article but I want to pull out some sections and write about it here, like this part...
“At a twice-yearly Chicago support group for PPA (Primary Progressive Aphasia) patients Weintraub sees from around the country, the male patient rushed into the room and asked the men sitting there, "OK, guys, how many of you have PPA?" Nine hands went up."How many of you had a vasectomy?" he demanded next. Eight hands shot up.”
Wow! I’m wondering how many of those eight guys really knew what he was asking. I mean they do have PPA, right? Are they certain they even had a vasectomy? Maybe their meds mixed with the free coffee at the support group kept them alert enough to answer correctly. I’m not joking. I take this article very seriously. They are talking about my testes!
This section is an eye-opener…
“Certain organs – including the testes and the brain – exist in what is the equivalent of a gated community in the body. Tiny tubes within the testes (in which sperm are produced) are protected by a physical barrier of Sertoli cells. The tight connections between these cells prevent blood-borne infections and poisonous molecules from entering the semen.
After a vasectomy, however, the protective barrier is broken and semen mixes into the blood. The immune system recognizes the sperm as invading foreign agents and produces anti-sperm antibodies in 60 to 70 percent of men. Weintraub said these antibodies might cross the blood-brain-barrier and cause damage resulting in dementia.”
I like how the article refers to my Sertoli cells as a gated community that protects my testes. It’s good to know that something is watching out for perpetrators trying to cause trouble with my spermatozoa.
The scary part about the statement in the above paragraph is that the immune system thinks the sperm mixed in the blood are bad guys and creates anti-sperm antibodies to fight them off. Although, many guys probably think having another child is equally (if not more) scary than having antibodies and sperm duke it out over territorial rights in the bloodstream - which may or may not cause dementia later in life. It’s always a possibility that another child will drive you crazy anyway.
This is an interesting paragraph in the article...
“One of Weintraub's patients with FTD (frontotemporal dementia) was eating lunch in a restaurant with his family and excused himself to go to the bathroom. When he hadn't returned after 10 minutes, his sons went to investigate. They found him doing pushups on the bathroom floor. Other FTD patients begin shoplifting, compulsively gambling, misspending large amounts of money or become sexually demanding.”
I actually do not see a problem here. Except for the shoplifting side effect, this may not be all that bad. Pushups can lead to stronger muscles. Compulsive gambling is really only an issue if you lose every time. Sexually demanding behavior may be stressful for some people, but if you have no sperm then where’s the harm in that side effect? No worrying about babies, right?
I know it is hard for some guys to find the humor in having your testicles operated on (present company included) so I thought I would help you make light of it. If you are a man still riding the fence on whether or not you should get the “snip-snip”, go ahead and read the entire article before you decide. Read a hundred articles if you need to, but be certain of your decision before going under the knife.
If you are a man that has undergone the surgery, the damage to the brain may already be done but you can still get your little swimmers back! You can get the procedure called the Microsurgical Vasectomy Reversal. We have all seen the billboards on the highways and the full-page ads in the phone books. Those doctors really earn their money and probably have a lot of friends.
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