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Brian Cox, MB,PhD; Mary J. Sneyd, MB,PhD; Charlotte Paul, MB,PhD; Brett Delahunt, MD,FRCPA; David C. G. Skegg, MB,DPhil

JAMA. 2002;287:3110-3115.

Context  Vasectomy is a common method of contraception, but concern exists about a reported association with risk of prostate cancer.

Objective  To examine whether vasectomy increases risk of prostate cancer.

Design, Setting, and Participants  National population-based case-control study of 923 new cases of prostate cancer among men aged 40 to 74 years from the New Zealand Cancer Registry who were on the general electoral roll. Controls (n = 1224) were randomly selected from the general electoral roll, with frequency matching to cases in 5-year age groups. Cases (3-15 months after diagnosis) and controls were interviewed by telephone between January 1997 and November 1999.

Main Outcome Measures  Relative risk (RR) of prostate cancer for men who had had a vasectomy vs those who had not.

Results  There was no association between prostate cancer and vasectomy (RR, 0.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75-1.14) nor with time since vasectomy (RR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.68-1.23 for 25 years since vasectomy). Adjustment for social class, geographic region, religious affiliation, and a family history of prostate cancer did not affect these RRs.

Conclusions  Vasectomy does not increase the risk of prostate cancer, even after 25 years or more.

Author Affiliations: Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine (Drs Cox, Sneyd, Paul, and Skegg), and Department of Pathology, Wellington School of Medicine (Dr Delahunt), University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

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