Even 15 years later, vasectomies can be successfully reversed

A man who undergoes a vasectomy can have it successfully reversed -- and father a child -- 15 years or more later.

In an analysis of 213 men who underwent surgical reversals within 15 years of a vasectomy, doctors at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center found that 90% began producing sperm again. The procedures, all performed by Dr. Marc Goldstein from 1984 to 2001, were randomly selected.

When the study subjects were followed through two years of attempts to father a child, the average pregnancy rate was 84%. That compares with rates of 50% to 60% in previous published studies of men who underwent vasectomy reversals. (Among men who have never been sterilized, 90% are able to father a child within two years.)

The improved success rates stem from the development of advanced microsurgical techniques now used to reconnect the sperm-carrying vas deferens tubes, said Goldstein, surgeon in chief of male reproductive medicine and surgery. However, pregnancy rates associated with surgical reversals performed more than 15 years after a vasectomy remain at 44%, he said.

Among men who have undergone a vasectomy within the previous 15 years, a reversal has a greater chance of leading to a pregnancy than extracting sperm and performing in vitro fertilization using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), Goldstein said.

The study was published in the January issue of the Journal of Urology.

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Jane E. Allen