Psychosocial and Medical Effects of Vasectomy in a Sample of Health Plan Subscribers

Abstract

The effects of vasectomy on psychosocial adjustment assessed by interviews, and on physical health assessed by physicians and other medical personnel, were examined by comparing 33 vasectomized men with a matched group of 33 non-vasectomized men in a pre-paid health plan. Consistent with favorable self-reports in earlier studies, the vasectomized men experienced no greater marital, job, or general living stress than the non-vasectomized men. In fact the psychosocial adjustment of the vasectomized men appeared superior to that of the non-vasectomized men, perhaps because of reduced anxiety about unwanted pregnancy. The hypothesis advanced by some investigators that vasectomized men exaggerate their masculinity in an overcompensating maneuver to reduce a perceived threat to their masculinity was not supported; instead, men volunteering for vasectomy exhibited as many masculine traits prior to the operation as after it. There was no evidence that vasectomy led to either impairment or enhancement of medical health.