Change of Heart: How Easy is it to Reverse a Vasectomy?

Women have a vast choice of birth control, with everything from pills to patches readily available to protect female sexual health and wellness. For the guys, however, the vasectomy is the closest thing modern medicine has come to an effective birth control option – condoms aside. When you have a vasectomy, it’s like a woman getting a lifetime supply of birth control pills – without putting her wellbeing at risk to side effects – or having her tubes tied, which is a much more complicated procedure than a vasectomy. The procedure is simple but somewhat permanent – unless, of course, you choose to have it reversed.

 

When you have a vasectomy, your surgeons will cut the vas deferens, which are the two tubes that transport sperm from your testicles to your penis. Two quick slices mean you’re sperm-free and in permanent safety from unwanted pregnancies. However, nothing is ever really permanent in this world, including some men’s resolve to not have children. Some men do opt to reverse their vasectomies, which is accomplished through a procedure known as a vasovasostomy. This is nothing new; vasovasostomies have been around for more than 100 years, with the first successful operation reported in 1919. These days, the procedure is ten-a-penny, with 30,000 previosuly-snipped men in the US having one every year.

 

The reasons to reverse your vasectomy will vary depending on the man, but often a remarriage, improvement in financial situation or death of a child is involved. On very rare occasions, a doctor might perform a vasovasostomy if complications of a vasectomy have left you in a lot of pain. Regardless of your reasons, reversal is definitely a tempting option, but it’s important to note that a vasovasostomy isn’t just a fall-back option for whenever you change your mind. The reversal procedure is not always successful, as your body may have ceased to recognise its own sperm and, as a result, developed antibodies to it. This drastically lowers your chances of impregnating your partner, even if you have a vasovasostomy.

 

One factor involved in the effectiveness of your vasovasostomy will be how long you wait to change your mind. Even if your doctor does manage to successfully reverse your procedure, your odds of getting your partner pregnant will still be lower than they were before you originally had the snip, and the time it takes for you to have a vasovasostomy will have an impact on these odds. If you choose to have a vasovasostomy three years after you originally had a vasectomy, for example, there’s a 97% chance that your doctor will be able to successfully reopen your vas deferens, but the likelihood of you impregnating your partner will stand at 76% – and this is the best-case scenario. The longer you wait to have your vasectomy reversed, the less of a chance that the vasovasostomy will work. If you were to wait 15 years, your chance of rebuilding your vas deferens will be 71% and of actually getting your partner pregnant will be a mere 30%.

 

You won’t be surprised to hear that “uncutting” your vas deferens is not as simple or straightforward as cutting it was. The average vasectomy takes about 20 minutes to complete, but a reversal of the procedure can take anywhere from two to four hours. While you don’t need an overnight stay in hospital for either procedure, with a vasovasostomy you should take the entire day off and expect to be in the hospital for at least six hours. Recovery then takes approximately a month, with you going back to work within three to seven days but refraining from sex for the full month.

Categories: Birth Control, partner, partner pregnant, procedure, reverse, Risks, vas deferens, vasectomy, vasovasostomy

Backwards Running: New Crazy Trend Provides Insane Benefits

Fitness and wellness writer Peta Bee details, ‘It’s a breezy afternoon in a local park and my attempts at fitness are heading in the wrong direction. Bemused onlookers can’t help but take a second glance as backwards running expert, Karl Twomey, and I trot past them in reverse. We pick up speed as I become more adept in the technical aspects of a most unexpected workout trend.’ Yes, that’s right, backwards running. According to enthusiasts, the advantages this new trend has to your wellbeing are endless, providing you with the benefits of regular running but burning 20% more calories that running forwards. Plus, that’s so mainstream.

 

You may have had one of those moments where, when walking uphill, you turn around and go backwards for a few steps to ease the pressure on your knees. Much in the same way, this is how Twomey took up reverse running. Back in 2010, Twomey started running backwards as part of his marathon training because it was less harmful to his joint wellness. However, this wasn’t just a clever training technique – Twomey actually ran the whole marathon backwards in four hours and 16 minutes, with no injuries whatsoever. Twomey explains, ‘Your balance improves and so does your peripheral vision and even your hearing as you become more attuned to what’s happening around you. It also gives you incredibly well-toned calf and thigh muscles, but it doesn’t strain the Achilles tendon like regular running.’

 

However, Bee notes, ‘Despite its current fashionable status, reverse running is not new. It first emerged in the 70s, when a small group of sports doctors began recommending it to injured athletes and footballers. Since then, it has become an essential part of training in sports as diverse as boxing and hockey. Physiotherapists approve because running backwards entails less movement of the hips, reducing impact on the joints. It is often recommended for rehabilitation from knee and back problems.’ In fact, in a weird way, backwards running is like a fast-forward route to better wellness. Researchers at the University of Oregon have found that running in reverse means you only need to move at 80% of the speed of forward runners to gain the same physiological and fitness benefits.

 

Another study, this time from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, looked at the effects of reverse running in a group of beginners. The researchers found that running backwards helped to streamline participants’ physiques while also improving their cardiovascular fitness. This research was undertaken on a group female students who were put on a reverse running programme, and compared with a group who stuck to their regular activity schedule. The retro-runners were found to have significant decreases in oxygen consumption, meaning they had become aerobically fitter and had lost an average of 2.5% of body fat.

 

Still, the advantages of backwards running don’t end there, says reverse running guru James Bamber. ‘Because you land and push off from the forefoot, your toes are strengthened, which aids good posture,’ he comments. According to Bamber, if you were to run one lap of an athletics track backwards, this would provide the fitness equivalent of running four to six laps forwards. In other words, 100 steps in reverse produces the same benefits as 1000 steps straight ahead – the same benefits but 10% of the effort? Surely there are no drawbacks to that! However, the obvious downside to running backwards is you can’t see where you’re going, which requires more mental focus. Twomey admits, ‘You can’t switch off. It’s more mentally exhausting than that meditative zone you can hit running forwards.’ However, he adds, ‘Other runners look at you as if you are mad, and then you spot them a few minutes later having a go at it themselves. It’s addictive.’

Categories: Avoid Injury, backwards running, Benefits, fitness, less effort, regular running, reverse, reverse running, Running, running forwards, twomey

New Cream Could Completely Reverse The Signs Of Ageing

A new wrinkle cream called MitoQ could be a revolution in the anti-ageing market, as it is thought to both soften the skin and actually reverse the signs of ageing. This was discovered by scientists Rob Smith and Mike Murphy from Cambridge University, who stumbled across the blend of ingredients by accident. It is thought that the cream floods the cells with antioxidants and that these destroy any lurking free radicals.

 

If proved, this discovery will join a whole host of accidental medical breakthroughs which have occurred when scientists are looking for something else altogether. These include Botox, Quinine and Viagra, which were all discovered by accident.

 

In this case, the scientists at Cambridge University were working towards a cure for liver damage, and in the course of this they accidentally created a cream which they now feel sure will work as a powerful reversal for the signs of ageing.

 

Naming their product MitoQ, the scientists have patented the product which they say floods cells which the health-giving molecules and send them straight to the mitochondria, to eliminate the free radicals that cause tissue damage. The team claims that this discovery could massively enhance the body’s antioxidant capacity and restore ageing cells to their optimal function.

 

Other accidental discoveries include Viagra, which was discovered when scientists were looking for a medicine for angina. When the medication, designed to relax blood vessels, was tested on trial volunteers, the results for angina were disappointing. Then, the volunteers started to report that the side effect of the drug was that they were experiencing more erections. At this time, there was no treatment for erectile dysfunction and so this discovery was incredibly exciting.

 

Ritalin was also discovered by accident. It was originally intended to medicate depression in adults and is now used to tread ADHD in children.

Categories: ageing, aging, cambridge university, cream, discovered, Free Radicals, nbsp, reverse, scientists