January 15th, 2015 was one of the happiest days of my life. I was the new father to my fourth child, a healthy baby girl. For my wife and I, it was the end of a chapter. Our family was complete and we were excited to move past the baby years and enjoy raising our kids. We knew this baby was our last and it was now up to me to fix our fertility conundrum. Admittedly, my wife was anticipating the vasectomy more than I was, but the thought of guilt-free spontaneous sex anywhere at any time without the fear of pregnancy was too enticing to pass up. The appointment was made and I was excited the throw the box of unused condoms in the trash.
The Vasectomy
My appointment was set for a Friday at 8:00 am (04/24/2015). I had spent time researching local clinics and decided on a urologist across town. The procedure itself was no big deal. I have had dental cleanings that took longer and were more painful than my vasectomy. Aside from the awkward moment of being alone on a surgical table with my pants around my ankles, it went smoothly. He started with a single incision on the left for the left vas deferens, then crossed through the scrotal septum and did the right side through the original incision. I remember him cauterizing quite a bit towards the end. I asked if everything was alright and he mumbled something about bleeding and hemostasis. Pinch of the needle, slice, cut, tie, burn, stitch and I was driving home a sterilized man. Overall, I felt pretty good. (This question always comes up – no, I was not sedated for the procedure).
I spent the next 24 hours following post-op instructions. “Stay off your feet, ice, rest, don’t exercise, and don’t lift anything over 20lbs.” I watched some movies, cracked a few frozen vegetable jokes, and chatted with friends who were anxiously waiting to hear about my experience. The next day was more of the same — ice, sleep, chuckle. Aside from a little tenderness down low, I was on my way to healing. That night, about 36 hours after the vasectomy, was my first hiccup. I was enjoying my 11lb newborn when my wife decided to snap a picture. As I brought my baby close to my face I felt a lightning bolt go through my right testicle to my navel. It wasn’t the worst pain I had ever felt but it certainly got my attention.
The area grew sore but it was bearable. I slept through the night but woke up feeling jittery. It was Sunday morning and I had to see an emergency patient at the office (I am a dentist). I remember struggling to maintain mental focus through the visit. I figured it was just pain-induced anxiety. Healing takes time and I was determined to be patient. Monday and Tuesday were fine. I had some aches and pains but I was able to work through them. When I went to bed Tuesday night, I had no idea my life was about to change forever.
The Beginning of Things to Come: Vertigo and Loss of Sight
At 3:00 am Wednesday morning (5 days post vasectomy), I awoke with severe vertigo. I spun for 5 minutes before falling back to sleep. When my alarm went off three hours later, I was no longer spinning but my balance was severely compromised. I remember getting to the bathroom by dragging my shoulder against the wall so I wouldn’t fall. I made it to the shower and began my morning routine. By this time, the dizziness was really bothering me. Together with the pain in my scrotum, I struggled with what was transpiring. Was it an illness? Was it the vasectomy? Surely my testicles couldn’t make my head spin. I stood in the shower palpating the area where the pain had started 5 days earlier when I felt my vision go out for the very first time. Being a dentist that has fixed many syncope incidents, I immediately laid down on the shower floor for the sake of my enamel. “One thousand one, one thousand two…” Not only had I not passed out, but my vision also wasn’t returning. When I realized I was alert but blind, I panicked. My wife woke up to me crawling back into bed screaming her name. After two minutes in bed, shampoo and all, the gray faded away and my vision returned. I remember an intense tingling in the back of my head, like pins and needles. This new sensation was accompanied by a sharp headache. It was very localized and extended up behind my right eye. I understood I had just had surgery, perhaps it just needed time to heal.
Vasectomy Side Effects No One Talks About
Headaches, Dizziness, and Nerve Pain
More than anything, I just wanted it to go away. I tried to be patient but my life and my health were crumbling in front of me. I was in pain, I was dizzy, and my urologist was in denial. Some days I could function and on other days my pain and headache were so intense I could barely keep my eyes open. My pelvic pains were increasing in intensity and spreading to adjacent areas. By the time the pudendal neuralgia set in, I was checking in and out of emergency rooms every week. For the first time in my life, I was suicidal and realized that no amount of rest was going to bail me out of this mess. That is when I turned to doctors for help.
Up to this point in my life, I rarely saw doctors. Aside from the occasional school vaccine or wart removal, my health was boring. I’ve never had any major illnesses, surgeries, or concussions. I played a lot of sports as a kid but gave those up when I saw my friends getting injured. I have never had allergies besides the occasional seasonal sneeze. Since my vasectomy, I have seen an impressive number of specialists. Probably too many, but I was desperate.
Tinnitus and Vision Changes
My first appointment was with an ENT. I mention this one because looking back I think an opportunity for a diagnosis was missed early on. Symptoms were tinnitus that occasionally made a pulsatile whooshing sound, constant dizziness, a chronic headache of 2 months, foggy vision, and neck pain. She did the Valsalva maneuver, watched my eyes, and concluded I was fine. I was also given a hearing test and the audiologist found a lack of acoustic reflex on one side. She suspected a neuroma of some sort but the ENT wasn’t convinced. Clearly, there needs to be more awareness about intracranial hypertension. Instead, I was on my way to the doctor referral merry-go-round.
Headaches with Vestibular Damage, Neck, Knee, and Pelvic Pain, Prostatitis and Pudendal Neuralgia
From the ENT, I went to a neck specialist for the neck pain. He didn’t find anything and sent me back to urology for the scrotal pain. There were a couple of visits to an orthopedist when the knees, hips, and back began to hurt at the six-month mark. Urology to neurology, with a few more stops at the ER with pelvic pain, prostatitis, and pudendal neuralgia. Even though my crotch hurt, it was my headache that has gotten the most attention over the last three years. I have had 4 MRIs on my brain including an upright MRI and MRA/MRV, all of which were negative. I spent a month on heavy doses of migraine medication but to no avail. I was diagnosed with a vestibular migraine until an oto-neurologist found 27% damage to my right middle ear. He concluded that it wasn’t a migraine but rather damage to my vestibular system. He couldn’t explain the headaches or post-surgical onset but it did explain the balance problems.
Finally, the Culprit: Intracranial Hypertension
I continued to see neurologists. On suspicion of multiple sclerosis and without plaques showing on an MRI, they ordered a lumbar puncture. I’ll never forget the radiologist’s reaction when he measured my opening pressure. The conversation was something about golf when he yelled with excitement, “twenty-six!” It had been 18 months of 24/7 headaches when he explained to me that I had intracranial hypertension. My first puncture showed an opening pressure of 26mmHg with elevated proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid. I was ecstatic! Not because I was miraculously cured but because there was finally an objective measurement of how I was feeling inside. Anyone who has navigated the medical system with mysterious symptoms and years of dead ends knows exactly what I am talking about. I had a glimmer of hope that I was on the road to answers and recovery.
Wait a Minute – Males Don’t Get Intracranial Hypertension
Next stop, Mayo Clinic. My first application with pelvic pain, testicular pain, pudendal neuralgia, and the chronic headache wasn’t enough to get an appointment. I was much more popular with elevated intracranial pressure. Unfortunately, my optimism was short-lived. After one week in Minnesota, I left with a diagnosis of Chronic Pain and New Onset Daily Headache. I was given a prescription for Tramadol, Lyrica, and a referral to their chronic pain clinic. Regarding the pressure, it was explained to me that males can’t get intracranial pressure. Therefore, the neurologist refused to diagnose me with pseudotumor cerebri (another name for intracranial hypertension). Both the intake physician and I were dumbfounded. So much so that she actually apologized to me when I left.
Next was their chronic pain clinic and self-management pain program. I met with their pain specialist and received even more diagnoses; Central Sensitization Disorder, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Multifactorial Fatigue Syndrome. The pain doc did acknowledge the abnormal pressure and requested a follow-up spinal tap to confirm the validity of the first puncture. He also didn’t like that my glucose was erratic and my adrenals were abnormally low, so I had some follow-up to do when I got back home.
My second spinal tap was similar to the first except I was much more nervous. My original spinal tap ended with an emergency epidural blood patch after 9 days of leaking CSF. I knew for certain I didn’t want to go through that again. My second pressure was just over 22mmHg and it was enough for Mayo Clinic to confirm that I did in fact have some kind of pressure disorder. From there I wore a blood glucose monitor for two weeks and endocrinology concluded that I wasn’t diabetic. My cortisol stimulation test showed secondary adrenal insufficiency until an AM cortisol test months later came back at 11, so I am now considered low normal. The only blood test that has been consistently abnormal from the beginning is hormones. My testosterone levels oscillate between 280-400 and I have heard every diagnosis from secondary hypogonadism to “low normal.” For the record, I am 36 years old and relatively skinny.
Additional Medical History
There is not much more to the story. It has been three years of searching, doctor visits, PubMed, aches, pains, and frustration. My symptoms haven’t changed, I have simply tried to live around them. A summary of the rest of my medical journey is below.
- Rheumatology – ANA, CRPs, and other tests normal
- Immunology – immune system healthy, negative for mast cell disorder
- Neurology – pseudotumor cerebri (26 and 22), MRI’s negative, early signs of papilledema that resolved, MRA/MRV normal
- Optometry – uveitis at 6 months post vasectomy that has since cleared up, negative for HLAB27
- Orthopedics – hip, back, knee pain. MRIs of joints were insignificant except for chondromalacia in the right knee and anterolisthesis at L5-S1 which may explain leg weakness and pain
- Ophthalmology – no more signs of uveitis, papilledema, or optic nerve damage at 1.5 years post vasectomy
- Oto-neurology – right middle ear hypofunction (27%)
- Physical therapy – ilioinguinal neuropraxia creating weakness in hip flexors, core muscles, psoas, and abdominals. Abnormal gait and posture from neuromuscular dysfunction
- Radiology – full body CT with contrast at 3 months post vasectomy was insignificant
- Endocrinology – low testosterone and low cortisol
- Sleep apnea – Blood oxygen level is normal until REM when it drops. Physicians called it mild sleep apnea while Mayo considers it a sleep disorder consistent with Central Sensitization Disorder.
- Lyme testing – Negative twice. The first time was Elisa/Western Blot. The second test was Panel #B through IGenex.
- Urology – At month 3, I had blood in my urine and it was suspected I had a kidney stone. No stone was found on film. I also had severe ketonuria. The original urologist saw that I was sterile. He deemed the vasectomy a success and dismissed me from his practice. Other urologists have diagnosed vasitis, chronic pelvic pain, and post-vasectomy pain syndrome. Ejaculate culture tested positive for Group B streptococcus at the 2-year mark. Ironically, my wife tested positive for Group B strep during her second pregnancy in 2009.
Three Years Post Vasectomy
Since my vasectomy, my body hasn’t been the same. I tend to split my symptoms into two groups, my head, and my pelvis. I feel they are related but doctors have failed to make the connection, so I investigate them separately. I continue to struggle with my balance and my eyes seem to be part of that. Something as simple as looking at my phone while walking exacerbates the dizziness. I am in a better place mentally but I am not without my struggles. I have learned to endure the pain with deep breathing and distraction. I still have pain in my scrotum, more specifically my spermatic cord on the right side adjacent to my penis near my pubic bone. The pain radiates through my inguinal canal into my abdominals and over to my flank. Occasionally, I will have a flare-up in the area of my gallbladder. For weeks after my vasectomy, my stomach would gargle. Now, after a particularly fatty meal, I will get a sharp pain in my gallbladder that lasts for hours. Just last week I awoke to pain in my perineum. By early morning the nerve pain triggered a low back spasm that left me vomiting. Miraculously, I was able to drive home and passed out in a tub of hot water. I awoke to my wife crying at the floor of the bathtub.
The pudendal neuralgia comes and goes without warning. It is bad enough to put me on the floor. At one point, I had burning down my inner thigh that spontaneously migrated to my left forearm. This was the FIRST symptom on the left side of my body. There was suspicion of CRPS/RSD until one day when it spontaneously resolved. My knee, hip, and low back hurt constantly. The knee was first at three months, then the hip at six months, and eventually, my low back. I have developed muscle weakness on the right side in my pelvic region and it shows in my posture (torso leans to the left). It has affected my gait and my right arm no longer swings naturally when I walk. I have knots in the muscles of my back extending from my hip to my shoulder blade, shoulder, neck, masseter, and temporalis muscles on the right side. I am losing strength in my arms, often having to pause while washing my hair or brushing my teeth.
Professionally, I have been forced to limit myself to procedures that don’t require a sustained posture. It is my understanding that the majority of my pelvic pains are likely the result of nerve damage. According to multiple physical therapists, many of my troubles are from damage to the ilioinguinal nerve. Post Vasectomy Pain Syndrome (PVPS) is a common but under-reported side effect of vasectomy and affects hundreds of thousands of men worldwide. There have been three books written and several websites dedicated on PVPS. There are also hundreds of research papers detailing the complex management of post vasectomy complications, some literature reporting chronic pain in as many as 15% of patients. I realize I will most likely have to accept and deal with this pain for the rest of my life. However, it is the rest of my symptoms that make life more difficult.
My headache has been nonstop for three years and it feels like it has two parts. The sharp pain in the right sub-occipital area radiates behind my eye and above my eyebrow. It feels more like a tension headache that originates in my neck and shoulder. I have another headache that feels more like pressure in the upper occipital region. This headache seems to be associated with my cognitive symptoms. I have always been a very social person and now have a hard time with simple conversations. There are days when word finding is difficult. Periodically, patients have noticed the aphasia and will finish my sentences for me. There have been times where I forget where I am and where I live. I have even forgotten my birth date and middle name. I remember one instance when I called in a prescription and I couldn’t remember the word for the number “zero.” For three straight years, I have lived in a constant state of brain fog and lightheadedness that feels like a mix between the flu and never ending car sickness.
My symptoms are consistent with Lyme, MS, and fibromyalgia and other Central Sensitization Disorders. Mayo is convinced that it is nothing more than an overstimulated CNS from chronic pain. I find it peculiar that all of my symptoms are unilateral. Right side nerve damage in my scrotum, right side back pain, right side shoulder and neck pain, even my headache/eye pain is on the right side. Early on, I was able to get a full relief of symptoms taking Benadryl before bed. I would feel more rested and the brain fog would disappear just enough for me to get through work. There was a period where the insomnia was so bad that I turned to Tylenol PM for relief and incidentally found the connection. Benadryl no longer has this effect on me. Fortunately, insomnia is no longer an issue but I often find myself falling asleep as early as 3:00pm.
My symptoms are directly related to my sleep quality and stress levels. Hot baths with epsom salt are about the only thing that will help my headache. I learned after my second spinal tap that I could get my post spinal tap headache to disappear by lying flat in hot water for an hour.
I have tried the following prescriptions:
- Diamox, 125mg/day – no change in headache, tingling in hands affected work, did not try higher therapeutic doses, discontinued after 2 months on recommendation from neurologist
- Testosterone, IM (5 months), high libido, no change in symptoms
- Prednisone (2-3 weeks), no change in symptoms
- Cymbalta (3-4 months), felt worse mentally
- Verapamil (headache preventive, 4 months), no change in symptoms but did feel slight withdrawal with cessation
- Naratriptan (high dose for two weeks) no change in symptoms
- Lyrica (1 month) worsened brain fog, no change in symptoms
- Xanax, took once for anxiety
- NSAIDs, no change
- LDN (naltrexone 4.5mg before bed) currently taking, too early to report
I have had the following tests:
- MRI’s (brain x 4, hip, knee, low back) – WNL
- CT scan w/ contrast – WNL
- Scrotal ultrasounds – WNL
- Imaging of hips and kidneys – WNL
- MRA/MRV – WNL
- Lumbar puncture – 26 and 22
- Ejaculation culture tested positive for group B streptococcus
- Countless blood tests, many of which I don’t understand but I can list if needed
- MTHFR positive (heterozygote for C677T)
- Physical therapy for pelvic and joint pain
To say my health issues have consumed me would been an understatement. No matter how hard I try to move on, my headache is a constant reminder of what I am going through. The local vitamin aisle has become my workshop, as I sample any supplement that may have a positive impact on my health. A recent late night google binge landed me on an article showing intracranial pressure in returning astronauts. Alas, men can get it too! It is encouraging to see recent developments and progress towards solving the underlying causes of intracranial pressure. As luck would have it, I have started on a regular dose of allithiamine and have seen improvement in my daily fatigue. At this point, medicine has no solutions outside diuretics and ventricular shunts. My optic nerves are too healthy to justify surgery and high dose diuretics don’t allow me to practice dentistry. Until I can find answers, I am left to speculate and hypothesize what could be at the root of my troubles.
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This article was published originally on April 25, 2018.
Have you ever spoken to a Gonstead chiropractor? Also can you please email me, would like to connect as my husband dealing with issues post-V. Thank you!
Hello
I know this was posted awhile ago but has anyone had any luck with finding a way to treat there problems since this was posted?
My husband is currently going through this after his vasectomy and we have no where to turn. Rural doctors are hard to get into and so far no help.
If anyone has any ideas could you please let me knows?
Sent you an email…
Can you write me what helped you please?chatar@post.sk
Hi Steph- I am sorry to hear of your husband’s situation. The article’s author listed at the end a long list of things that didn’t work, BUT the last one he listed he hadn’t reported on yet: LDN (Low-Dose Naltrexone). I look forward to his reporting on this one! There are scientific papers written on LDN for chronic pain so be sure to research this. Also missing from his list is Cannabidiol on the author’s list. I would MOST Definitely look into that. (Cannabidiol is the NONpsychoactive component of cannibis, and is now part of much mainstream medical research.)
The author may have accrued some iatrogenic damage from each of the myriad (sometimes repeated) testing (e.g., contrast agents used for MRI and CT are highly toxic) and drugs he tried. I am so glad he offered his information for the benefit of many others.
**Most conspicuously missing from his list is Thiamine. I don’t know why not, since this website is all about thiamine. Benfotiamine is effective for conditions involving nerve conduction (it is more absorbable than the ubiquitous HCL and mononitrate forms) and TTFD is most effective for brain-based conditons (dysautonomia, mood & cognitive, etc.).
Hey BH,
I am very sorry to read your story and the problems that you are having post vasectomy. It is amazing how a lot of my symptoms are copy and paste compared to yours. Not all but a lot. It is also amazing how many other men are having very similar problems post vasectomy. I have printed off a copy of your story and some of the responses from other people and your responses back to them. I have highlighted things in your story and all of the comments that are identical to my scenario and will bring them with me to my next doctors appointment to help my doctor understand that all of my symptoms are in fact related to my vasectomy. I hope that this is okay as your story and posts are available online for everyone to see. I am a very logical person being a carpenter and knew from about 4 weeks after my vasectomy that these issues were related, (I also assumed earlier than that but wanted to give my body time to see if things would sort themselves out) but also knew that no doctors would believe me. I have been through a similar scenario, with doctors not listening and thinking my symptoms were not related, while I was being diagnosed with celiac disease. My symptoms for celiac were much much different than anyone else I have asked or know of any other doctor diagnosing celiac in a person. I am going to list my post vasectomy symptoms and if you have time to read them and give feedback GREAT. I would appreciate any information (a reply, email, phone call, ect…) as I had my vasectomy on May 17, 2022 and my health is in a downward spiral both physically and mentally.
General Health Information:
• Vasectomy date May 17, 2022
• Age 38 years old and PERFECTLY HEALTY other than celiac and a hiatus hernia
• Very rarely see doctors. See doctors for broken bones, celiac when I was getting diagnosed 12 years ago, and emergencies only, which I haven’t had any emergencies.
• Last time in the hospital in 12 years was for the birth of my two children who are 2 ½ and 9 months to date
• No other health problems growing up or at any younger age
• Played basketball and various other sports most of my life at a high level
• Carpenter is my occupation. I work for myself
• Have been slightly out of shape recently having two kids in less than two years so haven’t had much time for workouts and they haven’t been my focus as my kids are now
• Don’t smoke, drink (very rare, once or twice a year), don’t do recreational drugs at all (never have) and was not on any medication until post vasectomy
• 6’ and weigh 195 pounds pending on the day sometimes less sometimes more.
Vasectomy Information:
• No needle spray anesthetic for freezing and no scalpel vasectomy was performed on me. Both vas were cut and seared to seal them off and clips put on one side only. I don’t know which side the clips are on and I didn’t watch the surgery even though I was awake through it all. I assume the clips were put on the epididymis side of the vas deferens??? This is all this doctor does for a living but is not a urologist. He has done over 28,000 vasectomies including a lot of my friends who have never had a problem.
• There was only one incision/hole made in me and it was on the left side of scrotum and assuming the right vas deferens was pulled over through the same hole/incision to perform vasectomy. Don’t know if this may have caused damage to any nerves or blood vessels down there? I was in pain for part of the vasectomy it was brief pain and I let the doctor know but he replied back saying that was the worst of it… which it was, wasn’t much pain at all after that.
Post Vasectomy Symptoms:
• Testicle pain since vasectomy on May 17, 2022. Right testicle is worse than left but both are bad.
• Day of vasectomy and days after seemed to be on par for what the doctor tells you is going to happen. I seemed to be in quite a bit of pain on the trip home as I had a 2 ½ hour drive home. Once I had advil and ice everything seemed to be okay and healing. At about the 3-4 week period after the vasectomy was when I knew something was wrong and that this problem wasn’t going away with rest or simple medication or medication at all for that reason. Pain was persistent with other symptoms on the horizon.
• After seeing doctors pain actually comes from both epididymis not from testicle itself although pain seems to radiate out of the epididymis everywhere including the testicles. Again, right epididymis is worse than left while pinching and pulling it during exams. Pain feels dull, achy, and almost always present with heightened amounts of pain coming and going sometimes with activity, sometimes with or without sex, sometimes I am just laying around doing nothing and the pain is worse than ever. Heightened amount of testicle pain seems to come and go as it pleases for no real reason.
• If I get hit in the testicles they are definitely more sensitive than ever before. It is very hard for me to put my boy or daughter in my lap. I normally have to extend them out to my knee and even then the muscle pressure from my leg will cause testicle pain sometimes. Plus the fear of them kicking you where the sun doesn’t shine isn’t fun either.
• The pain out of testicles radiates up into my belly button area/lower abdomen and beyond (feels like nerve pain and I experienced very early on, the same as you with the lightening bolt from right testicle up to my belly button) upsetting my stomach and sometimes giving me worse reflux because of my hernia than I have had in the last 10-12 years of living with one. This is not always present but comes and goes as it wishes. This pain is also more right side dominant but can be felt all over abdomen.
• Pain in stomach has made stomach muscles tight and when I stretch back I can feel the muscles pulling straight down through the muscles leading from belly button into the tip of my penis. Feels like it follows along the urethra. Never have erectile disfunction… yet… hopefully never…
• Nerve pain has shot down my right arm on 4 different occasions and into my pinky and ring finger making them feel numb just like when you hit your funny bone. I felt the pain go through the inside of my elbow and down into my fingers all 4 times. Nerve pain has also shot down into my right leg 3 different times and into the tip of my big toe. I felt this pain go through the inside of my knee and then into my big toe. These incidents happened over a period of about a week and at about 6 weeks post vasectomy and haven’t occurred since although I have felt some other nerve pain in my body but not as intense as these lightening bolts were. The nerve pain in both my right arm and leg were always when there was a heightened amount of right testicle pain present. As stated before right testicle is worse than left. This all happened before I was on a drug called Ciprofloxacin which can cause nerve pain. You speak of it in your story as well. Seems like a nasty drug. I am told by doctors that there isn’t even a nerve path from your testicles to your arm or leg…??? What can I say, these are my symptoms.
• Sometimes feels like I have to pee even if I have just peed.
• Shooting nerve pain out of my testicles into the tip/head of penis. Normally the top portion of the head of the penis but sometimes feels like the whole thing. Sometimes it is only the right side of the head of the penis when there is more dominant pain out of right testicle.
• Right eye pain felt behind my eye and eventually started radiating from behind my eye over the top and towards the front of my eye. When it first showed up it seemed like it was coming from the optic nerve from behind my eye. It was barely noticeable at first and continued to get worse to the point where it felt like someone had charley horsed my eye ball. Then it turned into a burning pain and as the pain got bad enough I started to get headaches from it. Headaches and eye pain have only been on my right side. The headache comes across my eyebrows and seems like it is going to end up in my left eye but never does, stays on the right side of my head radiating out of the back side of my right eye. Right eye can also water when pain is bad enough. Seems to be little to no vision issues with both eyes. If there was a vision problem to complain about it might be that my right eye has a problem focusing while trying to read. I wear glasses and that seems to fix this problem so may or may not be a thing. My glasses are not reading glasses they are for fixing distance vision and I have always from as far as I remember been able to read close up without my right eye being an issue having said that I pretty much always wear my glasses except when sleeping. Hard to know for sure if vision is blurred. Steroid eye drops prescribed by eye doctor keeps the pain at bay kind of, but if I get off of them the pain comes back. Just recently the pain in my right eye has reduced it self significantly but don’t really know why? Pain was the same one morning and by that afternoon it was very minimal just like that… After having the pain for probably a month straight or more. Only thing different I have done has had three glasses of red wine on the same days the pain reduced itself????? Which I can’t remember the last time I had wine??? Would have been years and years ago. Could also be that the length of time taking the steroid eye drops has either begun to heal my eye or tricked my body into thinking nothing is wrong with my eye???? I am very confused as to why and what is happening there??? As the eye pain went so did the headaches. Pain is still present in eye but not near as intense as it has been and headaches aren’t happening now. Have seen 4 different eye doctors about 12 times between all of them and seen an eye doctor who performs custom lasik eye surgery who told me I would be fine to have lasik eye surgery as I pasted every test but I put a stop to that as I am concerned what the aftermath of that may be. Eye pain was present within 8 days of vasectomy and maybe sooner but I tend to ignore small amounts of pain.
• When my right eye was really bad I would feel a small tingling in my right cheek and on the outside part of my right nostril. It felt like nerve pain at the skin level and didn’t go into the muscles.
• Right side back pain felt after laying on my back for 10-15 minutes or more. The pain is directly beside my spine and feels like a pinching feeling, would maybe best describe it??? It radiates into the adjacent muscles on my right side and make them stiff for a bit after getting up from laying down. I had to actually sleep on my sides to try and avoid this pain in my back when it first showed up. Still dealing with that to date. I work all day and feel no back pain(sometimes some very intense physical days, placing concrete, shingling, framing, ground and dirt work with a wheelbarrow and shovel, etc…) but the second I lay down for any amount of time on my back I get this pain. Almost seems like when there is pressure in that area it hurts because I get the same pain while driving for prolonged periods of time in the exact same spot from pushing my back against my seat in my truck. Lately it has just been there pretty much all of the time. Between my shoulder blades and slightly to the right of spine. I have seen chiropractors and that seems to help but doesn’t get rid of the problem, also roll out my back on a roller and stretch daily. I have had one lower back injury in my carpentry career and it was from shoveling snow and this back pain is completely different than any other back pain/muscle pain in my back that I have felt.
• Both ears have internal pressure issues with my right ear being worse. Have had ringing in my ears but again mainly in my right ear. Descending in an airplane would be the best way to describe the inner ear pressure. Sometimes just feel weird inner ear movements that last for minutes, worse in my right ear, but again do feel this sometimes in my left. Ringing in my ear was mostly only noticed while trying to sleep but lately have been noticing it during the day as well. September 12, 2022 I had ringing in my ear while sleeping and then my inner ear tightened up so much it felt like it was plugged with an ear plug to stop sound from entering your ear. Then from that there was this very high pitched ringing which was completely different from the ringing I had been hearing. This lasted for 10-12 seconds and then went away. Then a very similar thing happened maybe an hour later when I got up to go to the bathroom. Since having these inner ear problems I have also noticed water enters my ears and gets stuck in my inner ears almost instantly when I go under water while swimming. I have spent a large amount of time in the water throughout my life and have never had this before. Someway somehow I have not had balance issues as of yet… I don’t know how I haven’t. Have just recently had a hearing test on Monday that showed everything was normal except for a slight amount of damage in my right ear. I think this is since the vasectomy but very hard to prove that. Don’t know if it will continue to get worse as I continue with the inner ear problem and ringing in my ears (tinnitus). They also did some kind of pressure test on my ears to check the inner ear tubes and said that was normal as well. Sometimes ears just hurt/ache almost like when you are getting sick with the flu but I am not actually sick with the flu.
• Mentally affected by all of this. Feel distance and disconnected as I don’t want to engage in conversations because of the constant pain and trying to focus on what I am doing or just couldn’t be bothered to. Short tempered with my kids and anyone else especially at times because I am in pain, this is worse when in more pain than not. This is what kills me the most. Raising two young children requires a tremendous amount of patience and very tough to have patience when you are in chronic pain most of the day and heightened amounts of random pain throughout the day. This is especially because it is testicle pain which is a completely different pain than anywhere else in the body. It brings me to tears to think about my kids and how I am not healthy and already feel like I am not there for them enough… IT IS TERRIBLE!!! I FEEL LIKE THE PAIN IS STEALING MY MOMENTS WITH MY SON AND DAUGHTER EVEN WHEN I AM WITH THEM!!!
• Tail bone hurts especially after sitting for long periods of time. Almost feels like I have fallen on my tail bone but I haven’t. This is something I have only experienced when falling while skating or skiing or on ice walking and landing hard on your tail bone. No fall has happened it literally hurts at times while just sitting and continues to hurt after getting up.
• For some reason all of a sudden on September 5th, 2022 my right testicle started hurting much more than it has and continued with this heightened amount of pain for around 5 days so to about the 10th of September and then went back to what it has been for a pain level. Have no idea why the increased amount of pain at all. I fish on a large lake and the water was rough for a couple of days and maybe that shaking driving through rough water caused testicle pain. Hard to believe it would last 5 days or more though???
• Sometimes with testicle pain I also feel pain adjacent in my groin area and muscles. Also have cramping in my bladder is what it seems like and makes me feel like peeing would relieve the cramping and makes me feel like I have to pee.
• Sleep hasn’t been good. Sometimes easy to fall asleep but other times not. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and then just stay up the rest of the night. Sometimes heightened amounts of testicle pain and that makes me think that is what has woken me up but other times testicle pain sits where it always is. Don’t know if sleep is an issue because I am constantly thinking about my symptoms or the pain itself or one of the other symptoms keeping me up???
Medical Approaches:
• First doctor I saw was the same one who performed the vasectomy. Told me to take 3 extra strength advil per day for a week and things would clear up. I knew after the first pill not doing anything that the rest of the week would be a waste of time but I did it anyway. No change. I went in to see him, he performed an exam on my testicles which all he did was pinch on my testicles and that was it. Before performing the exam I was telling him about my symptoms he wheels over on his wheely chair and completely closes the door (the door was just pushed against the jamb and not completely closed) and tells me to speak in a quieter volume as he doesn’t want his patients to hear about my problems… I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT!!! I understand he doesn’t want his patients to hear about what could happen with vasectomies but maybe they should so they can be well informed before making the decision to get snipped. UNREAL!!!! He preceded to tell me that he wasn’t a urologist but would write me a referral to see one. I was thankful for that. He told me that because I wasn’t sleeping well that may be why the pain is so bad and then said something about how he had been doing this for 30 years and hasn’t heard symptoms like mine and that they were not related in anyway, etc… I tuned out once I realized he was concerned with getting back to snipping more men than dealing with me as there were men waiting to be snipped in his other rooms and the waiting room. I left there feeling like I should tell everyone to RUN!!!
• Have seen multiple doctors who think the symptoms are not related to my testicles and the vasectomy. Including a men’s health specialist who would write a referral to see a urologist. This doctor told me after a less than 10 second exam of my testicles, penis, and pelvic floor that there is no way cutting the vas deferens has anything to do with my testicle pain and that the testicle pain that I am feeling is ironic and that my pelvic floor muscles are causing all of the problem. I would have experienced this testicle pain from my pelvic floor no matter what… Even if I hadn’t got a vasectomy!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA RIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!! When I asked him about why is the pain coming from my epididymis then he just basically tried to overrule me by saying he was a doctor and was highly trained to detect these things… with a less than 10 second exam???? I DON’T THINK SO!!!!
• Another doctor who I had seen before this men’s health clinic specialist, performed a proper exam and found the pain was coming out of my epididymis and had done a prostate exam and bladder exam. All seemed fine. The same doctor put me on Ciprofloxacin for 4 weeks. There were some weird side affects with that and I actually stopped taking it after week 3 because of a lower calf cramp that kept showing up. I had done nothing exerting my lower leg muscles on the day it had shown up and it was an intense cramp that continued to try for more than an hour. I fought it off by constantly stretching it. The cramp came on while I was changing my boys diaper which is not exerting my legs one bit… Knowing that I had been on it for 3 weeks with not much improvement at all and the achilles tendon issues that can come with it I opted to get off of it. Same doctor order an ultra sound which showed:
• Right testicle measures: 4x3x2 cm
• Left testicle measures: 3.5×3.3×2.1 cm
• Both testes demonstrate homogeneous echotexture with no focal lesions
• Normal vascularity is preserved
• A simple cyst is seen within the right epididymal head, measuring 2.6×2 mm.
• A simple cyst is seen within the left epididymal head, measuring 2×2 mm.
• Small amount of fluid is seen within the scrotal sac bilaterally with diffuse low level internal echoes within.
• Prominent pampiniform plexus seen within the left scrotal sac is within normal limits
• No acute pathology identified
• Small complex of fluid within scrotal sac likely represents evolving hematocele/spermatocele
• All doctors that have looked at the ultra sound report think everything is fine… it was not a urologist who read the images taken it is a radiologist which at some point I would really like a urologist to look at them not just the report but the actual images themselves. Also was on cipro when test was done, don’t know if it would have made much difference not being on it.
• After having the ultra sound I had a very good 4 days in a row for pain in my testicles, eye, and everywhere else even though the imaging ultra sound was done only on my testicles and epididymis. This led me to think that maybe getting therapeutic ultra sound performed on my testicles and epididymis may increase blood flow, break down scar tissues, and maybe just maybe help solve or cure my problem??? Probably not but worth a shot so I go in for a pelvic floor assessment and speak with the same person about ultra sound on my testicles. Either that or purchase my own machine and do it myself??? I know ultra sound can affect your testicles in regards to making you less fertile but I don’t know if it affects your testosterone levels or anything else your testicles may help with in the male body??? Will have to phone the ultra sound companies to find out.
• Have seen another doctor who has ordered pee tests and reviewed everything else that was done and thinks that there could be scar tissue down there causing a lot of my problem. She also ordered an ear test as well mentioned above. B12 and B2 are vitamins she wants me on to help with nerve pain and to help with my headaches, but before going on the B2 or B12 my eye pain and headaches settled down quite a bit on their own. She is a very good and caring doctor.
• I have an appointment to see a urologist in January of 2023, HAHAHA because I am going to wait that long with testicle pain… UNREAL this Canadian medical system… May 17, 2022 have a problem with a procedure done within the medical system and passed by the medical system yet I have to wait for 8 months until January of 2023 to see someone who might have a solution for me???!!!! WOW!!! There was also a mistake made by the receptionist which added about 4 months to the time. I was waiting thinking I was on the list to see a urologist but actually the receptionist forgot to put me on the list… WOW again, can’t make this stuff up. My health is in the hands of receptionist that could care less about your health.
• Hearing and inner ear pressure/tube test
• Chiro appointments which help short term with back issues. No change in eye and headaches.
I did not mean for this to be so long but wanted to be thorough in sharing all of my symptoms hoping it may shed light in helping someone else or myself. At the very least maybe create discussion about the topic and make more men comfortable sharing the details of their vasectomy issues as they can be hard to talk about and even embarrassing at times. Just to be clear all of my symptoms happened post vasectomy, are right side dominant, and are all very weird symptoms that I have NEVER experienced before. I am interested to hear the rest of your story and what has happened since your posts. Also any other details that might shed light on a fix. I was absolutely blown away by how some of the symptoms between your story and mine were spot on. I couldn’t believe it when I read it. I will be joining a couple of facebook pages for post vasectomy pain to see if there is anything I can find that will help. I will also provide detailed symptoms as I have here to see if that helps anyone else’s post vasectomy issues. Apparently there used to be a website called postvasectomypain.org but has been taken down by the owner leaving a lot of people disappointed.
I do not have much to offer in regards to help as this is all new to me, but I do know of another guy that had cysts on his epididymis post vasectomy as I do and the doctors told him it was nothing to worry about. He had testicle pain and I don’t know if he had any other pain in his body, but he came across a Dr. David Brownstein from Michigan I believe. He used to be a conventional GP or family doctor and then became a holistic doctor and has written 16 different books on things like iodine, salt (real salt not refined table salt), thyroid disorders, arthritis, natural hormones, leaky gut, etc… He seems legit. This guy I know who is a chiropractor watched one of his videos on iodine and tried taking it with selenium and it made all of his testicle pain go away. He tells me that if he quits taking it then the testicle pain does eventually come back. I haven’t talked to him in great detail about it, but probably will in the near future. The iodine and selenium he takes is available on ebay and is called Lugol’s Iodine with Selenium. He was telling me something along the lines that iodine helps with gland function and that the epididymis is a gland… again I didn’t get into great detail about it, but I have ordered some and waiting for it to arrive. I will be discussing with my doctor to see what she thinks and going from there.
A response of any kind would be great, very very sorry for the novel. Happy testicles!!!
I had a vasectomy November of last year and have had a lot of crazy test and things happen since then and have also been Floxed from Levofloxacin during this too if you want to reach out to me if like to hear more about your story and share mine as well my email is corbinsmith278@ gmail.com
Crazy things happened to me after vasectomy too my email is corbinsmith278@gmail.com send me an email I want to hear more about your story and share mine
Sent you an email. Thanks Corbin.
Ooops. I am sorry to read you had already tried the testosterone IM long ago.
Discard my reply regarding it. Damn. It’s rough.
Thanks John. Ya I’ve been on testosterone since I discovered it was low post vasectomy. I was in the mid 800’s pre vas and 200’s afterwards. Most research says vasectomy doesn’t affect hormones but if you dig deep enough you can find literature showing the contrary. There’s also pain, stress, and immune dysfunction that definitely could be contributing. I’ve cycled off and on T several times and don’t notice anything effects good or bad. I continue to take it in case it’s contributing to the immune issues. Hopefully enough T will lessen sperm production and keep the systemic exposure at a minimum.
It’s only a hunch:
Do you know your serum levels of vitamin E and biotin?
Have you ever had your urine collection levels of heavy metals examined after chelating agents stimulation?
Had you ever taken any finasteride or dutasteride?
Any news?
Also, do you know more about the supposedly auto-immunogenic or inflammatory cause of your low testosterone and whether it’s primary (testicular tissue, low T but elevated LH and FSH), secondary or tertiary? Are other steroid hormones and particularly neurosteroids affected too?
I came upon this approach and remembered you. It can be worth reading and perhaps trying if you suspect the auto-immunological pathomechanism as significant in your scrotal or even general condition.
The Use of Testosterone in the Treatment of Chronic Postvasectomy Pain Syndrome: Case Report and Review of the Literature
Edward Joseph Pienkos, MC USA Author Notes
Military Medicine, Volume 172, Issue 6, June 2007, Pages 676–679,
https://academic.oup.com/milmed/article/172/6/676/4578118
Hi, I read your story and what jumped out at me was the fact that you had a vein embolized during your procedure. When blood vessels are embololozed the blood is rerouted to new veins. When veins in the pelvis of males or females are rerouted or compressed for any reason the new route can create major complications for the patient. It sounds like you have pelvic congestion caused by that embolization. Pelvic compression and embolizations cause pressure, pudendal neuralgia, shooting nerve pain in legs, pain in back, tinnitus and intracranial pressure. Sometimes the blood is rerouted into the lumbar veins-azygos, also hemizygous etc. I am female with high icp and pelvic congestion syndrome. All with your exact symptoms. It wasn’t the vasectomy per se, but the effect of the Dr. embolizibg the veins and changing where and how blood flows. There are many main veins. You have a left and right gonadal vein. Just saying he knicked that vein, it would cause the blood to back up as no where to go, then it creates collaterals and then things get bad. Male pelvic congestion syndrome is a thing, but only vascular surgeons that are trained to see with an ultrasound for starters will see the problematic blood flow. High icp is very common and so is tinnitus, alot of us in my fb group have similar issues. When blood backs up it also compresses nerves, hence neuralgia. I have finally gotten a dx after so many years and went through so many Dr’s and tests. I’m getting my venogram this week. This is so they can see exactly what going on. I wish you the best!
Have you tried energy work/healing? I know it may seem “taboo”, but everything is made up of energy. I’ve taken quite a few sessions and really notice a difference. Not for the same issue but it may help you.
Have you tried getting craniosacral, visceral manipulation and/or lymphatic massage work? Certain body work methods done with someone who is a master , over time can really support the body in healing. Dont know where you are located but you can look for practitioners on these sites. I recommend finding someone with many years of experience. https://milneinstitute.com/practitioners/. https://www.barralinstitute.com/therapies/ https://vodderschool.com/manual_lymph_drainage_overview
best to you!
B H – I appreciate you sharing your story. Your story has given hope to me and my husband that hormone disruption may be the causation of his NDPH. I have not yet read through the rest of the comments from your post which looks like will contain updates. I’ve posted my husband’s story here: http://www.pleasehelpmyhusband.com and included my email – please feel free to connect.
Hi Haddie. I think I can help your husband. Just sent you an email.
Your not the only one anymore this has happened to after vasectomy please reach out to the comment your really going to what to hear my story and I really want to hear more about your I thought I was the only one something like this happened to after a vasectomy
Just sent you an email.
Hi B H, I read through your post with interest and really feel for you. I’m no doctor but have gone through something similar, and relief is out there! I do have a few things to offer that may help you, though. First, although a lot is made of thiamine’s wonderful properties on this site, it is not a panacea. However, I’ve come to believe that the same principles are at play in yours, as with my, complicated case.
I believe I have mild intracranial hypertension but have not been diagnosed with it. I have almost all of your early symptoms but testing has come up relatively normal, the one exception being a finding of ‘partially empty sella’ on brain MRI. My doctors wrote that off as an incidental finding since my eye exam didn’t show evidence of papilledema.
High-dose allithiamine helped me somewhat. I feel megadose Allithiamine and a good B-complex pulled me out of my crisis phase (where blood pressure was spiking to 200+/110, blurry vision, head pressure, ear fullness, extreme fatigue, chills but no fever, screaming tinnitus, mild leg edema, heart palpitations, GI disturbance, etc. etc.). I thought I had a version of beriberi as described elsewhere on this web site. After 6 months of megadosing thiamine, like you, I felt a bit better, but still quite ill and had plateaued. I presume this should be an ample period for any ‘paradox’ reactions to subside.
To get to the next level, I had to look outside of my regular practitioners. Their training left no where else to go and nothing else to try. To chose the next plan of attack, I turned to one thing that I had noticed in that my screaming tinnitus almost disappears if I crane my head forward and extend my neck. So, I tried cervical chiropractic (the one mentioned where the practitioner only manipulates the C1/atlas). This made me feel ~95% of my old self, but alas, only for a week or so. There were other benefits, but it didn’t solve my main problem.
Next, I tried mild hyperbaric oxygen treatment. I thought I must be experiencing some kind of hypoxia since I kept getting these bouts of lightheadedness/dizzyness (not the spinny vertigo kind). Also, my ears constantly felt like I was descending in an airplane. I’d clear them, and in 5 seconds, the pressure would build back up. I thought hyperbaric treatment would be a good test for both the hypoxia and a potential pressure differential problem (even though an ENT exam showed no eustachian tube disorder). Still no relief, although it has seemed to improve my heart rate variability materially (an interesting side topic)!
Finally, and I should have done this a year and a half ago when all this started, I had a micronutrient test panel run. It generally came back pretty good, which surprised me considering how ill I’ve been feeling nonstop for a year and a half. HOWEVER, one nutrient, Alpha Linolenic Acid came back below detectable limits – not deficient, but totally depleted. This is a nutrient that’s apparently required for normal functioning of the brain, nervous system, and everything else. I couldn’t find much on the effects of depletion in humans, only that without it, one would get sick and die of an unnamed disease with non-descript symptoms (back to 1930’s research on its discover). I did find plenty of more recent research on mice – none of it good, though. Regardless, I added flaxseed oil (very high in ALA) and a fish oil (with DHA and EPA) to my supplements, and after 3-4 days all the badness that I hadn’t been able to shake for over a year lifted.
That’s not to say that you have the same deficiency, but my point is that make sure your nutrition is 100% before tackling other potential solutions like surgeries, pharmaceuticals, etc. Others have provided some good nutritional advice, but a micronutrient panel will pinpoint any problem areas, and especially may point you to nutrients you haven’t considered or are not familiar with.
I hope you’ve already found healing, and that this is moot, but, if not, maybe this will provide you a new and easy avenue of exploration. Wishing you good health!
Very interesting. I appreciate you reaching out. This article was written some time ago and I continue to get good advice. Quite a bit has transpired and it does sound like we’re on similar roads. My c1/occiput plays a huge role in this but in my case, there’s a lot more going on. I need to write a follow up. I have had a micronutrient panel but all it showed was deficiencies consistent with MTHFR. In fact, that’s what leads to the c677t MTHFR diagnosis above. Do you mind me asking what nutrient panel you ran?
I used the NutrEval from Genova diagnostics. I did not do the MTHFR test as it was optional, and my homocysteine had tested a few times WNL (~10). Wonder if I should look into, that, too…
Were you sedated with nitrous oxide during your procedure?
Nope
Some very similar things happened to me after my vasectomy 7 months ago and hopefully going to Mayo Clinic sometime soon since no doctor here can tell me why my scans are the way they are and or help me with anything please please please reach out to the comment I would really like to talk more about your story and tell you mine and also tell you what might help us after talking to some other people
Rough. I am very interested in reading an update on your conditions. How did you treat the tick-born pathogens which were eventually confirmed? Also, the Strep-B? The way I see it there must have been an infection causing the newly developed obstructions/epididymal cysts just prior to your vasectomy surgery because they don’t arise out of thin air without trauma or pathogenic infection. Perhaps it was spread right into the nerves upon surgery damage. Since ejaculate cultures can’t show anything I suggest to get those cysts aspirated and the fluids cultured at a clinic with immediate laboratory processing of these specimens. Cultures should not only include aerobic but also anaerobic and myco-/ureaplasma culture plates. Ideally a eubacterial PCR with sequencing in addition. Guidelines and evidence state i.v. ampicillin AND an aminoglycoside to treat unknown infections in urology because only that will cover a bactericidal impact on gram-positive pathogens.
Thanks John III. This post has been the single most helpful thing I’ve don’t on my health journey. The opinions have been helpful. I have tried religiously to get my cysts removed/aspirated and cultured but can’t find a uro willing to do it. There is suspicion that bacteria was concentrated in the epididymis/cysts and released systemically with the vasectomy. Likewise, with the previous exit now obstructed by the Vas, the only path for bacteria would now be internal. Most of my medical team suspects the vasectomy was simply the trigger that created enough stress on the system to bring a latent infection to the forefront. Surgery and stress is a common cause of Lyme activation. I could see it happening either way. If removal of the right testicle was a reasonable could provide a positive outcome it would be gone tomorrow.
I treated my Lyme with oral antibiotics and herbals for 18 months. I then switched to IV rocephin (pulsed) and disulfiram for 4 months until my liver got angry. April 2021 I underwent hyperthermia treatment hitting core temp 108.2* F twice in two weeks with doxy, rocephin, flagyl, and gentamicin.
I saw minimal recovery from any of that. I was also diagnosed with autoimmune encephalopathy (brain atrophy and positive PANS/PANDAS) and small fiber neuropathy. Treated with IVIG for 6 months which caused extreme side effects and I nearly ended my life.
Recently consulted with a doc in AZ that feels like my unilateral brain atrophy could be more cervically related than systemic inflammation. Something similar to tethered cord syndrome, craniocervical instability, or similar type of vascular or neuro compression in the neck. My POTS diagnosis was also confirmed last month.
Going back to the post surgical injury mentioned in the article, that’s been diagnosed as a torn rectus and adductor off the pubis that lead to bilateral torn labrum’s in both hips. The suspicion is the resulting left leaning posture and neck pain has created a cervical issue. OR…the Lyme/mold exposure created enough of a collagen disorder that my trouble is now ligament laxity similar to ehlers danlos syndrome. Which makes sense considering the strange nature that I tore my conjoint tendon that started all of this.
My CCI consult is coming up in the next few months. I may fix my labrums, core muscle injury in the meantime and see if postural therapy can have any affect on my cervical pain. My symptoms…brain fog, diarrhea, fatigue, headaches, breathing, even my OSA seems to fluctuate with the intensity of my cervical pain.
It’s complex. If I wasn’t living this nightmare I wouldn’t believe the story, personally. Lyme, mold, CCI, EDS, viral etiology, autoimmune, it’s all in the cake somewhere.
Thanks for your time and comment.
I was expecting a cruel time and reading your update hits hard. I find it challenging to sort my thoughts for a reply. 18 months of oral Abs with only minimal improvement by itself already hurts. We all hope those weren’t fluoroquinolones. Something can’t be right about the used dosage or selection. Rocephin+Genta could have kicked butt. It aches me to say that combining them with Doxy wasn’t clever as Doxy is bacteriostatic and the others need bacterial proliferation for their bactericidal effect at cell division. Have there been any follow-up lab test to confirm the situation with your borrelia, ehrlichia, rickettsia, babesia? Any drops in specific antibody titers? No antibiotics-induced toxigenic Clos.difficile yet (diarrhea) or was the Flagyl for that? Your neurological events in addition to the breathing and digestive issues makes me want to mention Tropheryma whipplei as possibility. It exhibits a multitude of morbidities, is very resistant and hard to diagnose (PCR of CFS, tissues or potentially first-void-morning-urine) if already extra-gastrointestinal. It’s ubiquitous in the environment and very rare infection seems related to yet unspecified genetic susceptibility.
Another thing I would consider are your hypotension/tachycardia and encephalitis also as part of an important metabolic condition by your weakened liver, which has been taxed enormously. Maybe to keep in the back of your mind for sometime, as all liver/gallbladder/GI routines aren’t a walk in the park either. As for CCI and its related increase in intracranial pressure, dizziness, blurred vision, bad hearing, blood pressure there are specialized chiropractors who only push the C1 vertebrae, which releases lopsided pressure on cranial nerves but the realignment also “wobbles” downwards along the spine. Be careful about this and who you are letting do this, though. Also with regard to your demyelinating neuropathies watch out to maintain a serum Vitamin B12 well above 600 ng/l as a minimum or better above 900 ng/l. Don’t overdose on pyridoxine (B6) as this will cause functional B6 deficiency with all its associated neuropathies. If that already happened, counteract with B6 in form of P5P. Give folinic acid a try in case of chronically intensified headaches by methyl folate or an overwhelming fatigue brought about by folic acid. In addition, Omega-3s when not rancid, obtained from small fish or algae, as well as choline/phospholipids as from sunflower lecithins may boost the regeneration of nerve sheaths. As for cervical stability and muscular balance good physiotherapy and home exercises are crucial as first and continuous measures. In case of muscular dysbalances, contractions, cramps, both muscles and bones are likely not retaining sufficient electrolyte reserves, which entails sufficient levels of D3 and K2. Overwhelmed by the wave of issues I wonder whether, since at about this started, you have had any dental work done like protheses, fillings, root canals as those would impact the cranial posture and spine significantly.
Finding a scrupulous urology clinic can be a challenge. It’s mostly best to very clearly state ones needs before traveling anywhere and to perhaps leave out all “irrelevant” information so as to avoid confusion and all alarm bells going off irrationally. I wouldn’t recommend surgical debridement of the cysts. Aspiration happens with a very thin needle and sonography. There are reports, also in the comments on here, of subsiding autoimmunity after microsurgical vasectomy reversal. Rejoining the ducts easily costs ten times as much as merely cutting them and requires a surgical microscope and experienced, delicate skills. Maybe half if only done on the affected right side? I don’t comprehend how the original vasectomist “crossed through the scrotum” instead of choosing two tiny incisions for direct access on either sides. Anyhow, surely you have been told about the possibility of a cut of the pudendal nerves on the right to permanently numb the area and didn’t feel too great about this idea. There’s an option of localised anaesthetic injections which will merely last for some hours and lets you know how much of your chronic pain has already been centralised in your brain as opposed to still originating locally. Best of luck on a breather and the treatment for your muscles and hip labra.
John,
You are clearly well versed in a lot of this stuff. What’s your background and where are you located?
I was mistaken on my hyperthermia combo. It was rocephin, genta, flagyl, and azithrimycin (not doxy). I haven’t been tested for lyme since that ordeal. That was the peak of my lyme tirade and for my mental health and the health of my marriage/family I’ve tried diligently to move on. I figured there’s only so much lyme treatment you can do and I felt like I’d given it my all. I returned home from hyperthermia with raging tinnitus and balance trouble. I was falling daily and convinced it was the gentamicin, especially considering flagyl is contraindicated with it due to increased ototoxicity. After vestibular testing was negative for any damage I reached out to the specialist in AZ and it was her recommendation to pursue a cervical/mechanical etiology. This was because my brain atrophy was unilateral and coincided with my weaker right side.
I have looked into a physical etiology before. The torn conjoint tendon seemed to usher in most of my symptoms. It’s the unilateral nature of everything that keeps me coming back. I did see an atlas orthogonal specialized chiropractor in Denver for 6 months and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Up until a few months ago I didn’t know CCI, TCS, and AAI were even a thing. It’s about the only way I’ve found to connect a pelvic/posture/cervical issue to neuro symptoms.
I’ll have to look into tropheryma whipplei. I’d like to think my years of antibiotics would be good for that too but maybe not. I’ve never taken any fluoroquinolones thank goodness. I’ll probably never take another aminoglycoside either. It’s surprising such destructive meds aren’t reserved for last hope treatment.
My liver has taken a beating. In fact, 2 years before the onset of symptoms I showed elevated ALT/AST during bloodwork for life insurance which was just a few months after my original tick exposure. I remembered this after the lyme and it confirmed to me that I was on the right track chasing lyme. The life insurance nurse assumed I had lupus. The liver did settle down only to rear it’s ugly head with disulfiram. I had gall bladder pain regularly early on as well. It was often enough that I had an ultrasound which was negative. I now wonder if it was the torn rectus Abdominis causing the pain instead? It’s tough to know. GB pain is common in lyme too.
No recent dental work. Occasional pain in the lower molars but I get mild trigeminal pain on the right side from a tight masseter and temporaliis. Teeth are still vital. Occasional numbness in my upper right teeth but it doesn’t seem to be the teeth. Perhaps the sphenopalatine ganglion is somehow involved.
I have considered vasectomy reversal but I’m hesitant to cut there again. I’ve spoken with Sheldon Marks in AZ 2-3 times now. It’s an option though I’ve enjoyed my sterility. If it was the answer I wouldn’t hesitate. It’s just hard to justify it when the orthos point to the clear pathology in my hip/groin/back. Maybe one day I’ll get around to it. Why the original vasectomist elected for a single incision is anyones guess. My theory is he’s right handed and it’s simply easier for him to anesthetize and cut from his right to left instead of changing his surgical position. He entered from my left side, all my symptoms are exclusively on the right.
I’ve taken many of those supplements you mention but I’ll circle back around and see where I’m at. Another thing I’ve noticed is my best days go hand in hand with less neck and back pain. It happens every now and then and gives me a little glimmer of hope. I’m just trying to break these bonds and move on with life. It’s been a long journey.
I genuinely appreciate your advice. Thank you.
Thanks for openly sharing all this. It’d be great to eventually hear whether your unilateral CNS atrophy and PNS impairments will from this time on have been (post)infectious and (post)inflammatory and improved from now on with good diet, good supplementation, rest, adequate activity and time.
I am surprised that you didn’t notice any effects from the atlas manipulation and am hence somewhat doubtful about there being a causal connection from CCI to your intracranial pressure and unilateral brain atrophy – but who knows. I am just a regular everyday normal guy so take everything anyone says or does to you with a significant grain of salt. Klinghardt claims cervical compressions to be a large cause of nitrosative stress, with an essential countermeasure being frequent and significantly high doses of activated B12 or B12 with methyl donors to scavenge NO. I would recommend to give those subcutaneous or intramuscular B12 injections a try if you have supplemented only orally before. Betaine/TMG is a methyl donor. Being on tjhis
Have you looked into topical use of DMSO for tissue regeneration and pain relief?
You are right: Probably all bacteria have been targeted by your hyperthermia and combined antibiotic treatments. There’s likely no more need for you to look into Tropheryma. Albeit resilient, they are not XDR tuberculosis. You have really had a huge amount of antibiotics.
Perhaps it would be wise, though, at least for peace of mind and exclusion, to do a specific analysis for any liver/gallbladder flukes, oocysts and parasites, which constitute a possible cause of autoimmunity and immune suppression besides them eating up you and your food. Stool specimens from two or better three consecutive days need to be quickly delivered to a skilled, experienced laboratory for that, because some species are very difficult to spot. It just seems sensible to cover.
I wish you all the best for the recovery of your health.
Addendum: For the invasive sorts of protozoa, flukes and parasites diagnostics is actually primarily via serology (specific antibodies to Trypanosoma, Leishmania, E.hystolytica, F.buski, F.hepaticus and so on). Worth a look.
Instead of the microscopic assessments of enriched stool specimens from consecutive days there is also a pricey yet more sensitive multiplex-PCR for diagnosing helminths.
Again, all the best.
I’ve read your story 9 times because I finally don’t feel alone and yes what happened is from your vasectomy I have a very similar insane story as well I have my vasectomy 7 months ago and doctors can’t make sense of anything that’s happened to me I have a lot of the same stuff please reach out to this I really would like to hear more about your story and would like to share mine and also what I’ve found helpful and what could help us if we had the money
Thiamine is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, much like Diamox that’s used for mountain sickness.
Hi
I finished reading your article and I was amazed at the similarities to my own medical issue. Back in February 2019 I had a vasectomy performed, and since that day I’ve had near daily headaches and related head symptoms. While headaches is my primary complaint, I also get a dizziness and nauseousness that seem to feel related.
Shortly after my vasectomy, I began to experience months of sleep disturbances. Every night, it would feel like I couldn’t get deep or restful sleep. My sleep would also be broken, with multiple wakings throughout the night. At the same time, I began to experience daily headaches. They would usually start as soon as I woke up and would last all day. The pain was usually on the front behind the eyes. At some point, I also developed a dizziness and a nauseousness that seemed related to the sensations in my head.
I can’t remember how long it took, but at some point between 6 months to a year, my sleep issues improved. I was able to sleep more soundly and it felt like I was able to get more restful sleep.
From this point onwards, my headaches improved at an extremely slow pace.
Here’s an important thing I’ve noticed about my symptoms; sleep seems to be critical in determining the severity of my head pain the next day. If I can’t get a restful uninterrupted sleep, I’ll certainly have a headache.
It’s also important to realise that my symptoms have been with me, pretty much, every single day. Yes, there are some days when I experience little to no pain, but there is always this sensation that is with me. Kinda hard to describe.
One more bit of info. Two weeks ago I had my vasectomy reversed. I’ll see if there’s any change in my symptoms.
I’m not sure why I decided to Google “headaches after vasectomy”. There was always a part of me that wondered if my symptoms were triggered by my surgery.
Its amazing how urologists just dismiss us to get us out of there practice. It is such a easy money maker no one mentions side effects. When I went to the urologist again he said it wasn’t from the big V. I work in a hospital and know that every procedure has some kind of side effect whether its a scare or something that can alter your life. I had a vasectomy and 4 months later I would have thought I was having a stroke my head hurt so bad but I wasn’t showing any other signs. I battled with constant migraines,joint pain for almost a year before I had a reversal.( I never had headaches in my life before). It helped! My migraines stopped hurting everyday. I still get 1 about once a month for 24-36 hours. It quit pounding on both occipitals and only beats on the right side now. Kevin Hauber wrote a great book- “If it aint broke,Dont fix it!” I should have educated myself more. I preach to everyone where I work about “Dont get a Vasectomy!” Some listen now.
I had a vasectomy 6 years ago and am now struggling with low libedo and intermittent ED. Not sure if this is related to my vasectomy but at only 37 I am strongly considering a reversal.
It is possible that the vasectomy represented a stressor to your body that it just could not handle, a last straw if you will, that tipped you into an unhealthy state. Reproduction is energy intensive from a cellular/mitochondrial standpoint and so when there is damage or illness, the body pulls back on reproductive capacity/activity as a way to conserve resources to more important activities – maintaining life. I would consider reading up on how to support your mitochondria with diet and micronutrients – vitamins and minerals. We have a number of articles on that on this site. They are not necessarily related to libido or reproduction, so you will have to read between the lines, but the gist is that if your mitochondrial are stressed, inefficient, injured, etc. they will conserve energy by reducing libido. Feed the mitochondria and your libido as well as any health issues you might be dealing with, will resolve.
John,
Sorry to hear it. Dr. Marrs’ recommendation is a great one and is exactly what happened to me in the story above. Without knowing it, I had been bit by a tick in 2013 and lived with lyme and coinfections asymptomatic for two years (with the exception of epididymal cysts and an elevated liver AST/ALT). The vasectomy was the trigger that unraveled everything and sent my body into a tailspin. Another common finding amongst vasectomized men is low hormones. Uro’s will argue all day long that the vas doesn’t cause low T but that simply wasn’t my experience and there are hundreds of men with similar stories. If you dig deep enough you’ll find research showing it can affect hormones. My T was in the low 800’s pre vas and now hovers in the high 200’s. I have so many other things going on that it’s hard to point to the vas as the only factor but low T post vas isn’t unique. Check out http://www.postvasectomypain.org and I’d estimate 60-70% of those guys have abnormally low T. Might be worth looking into a supplement if you’d tried everything else and bloodwork shows that you are below normal FOR YOUR AGE GROUP. That’s the important part for hormones. I was told 200 is normal because it’s within range for males. 200 is more consistent with elderly men than someone like me at 38. Someone your age should he closer to 800-900.
Good luck.
I think you should keep looking into Lyme and co infections, my issues were triggered by vasectomy and after 6 months a diagnosis, lots of antibiotics and other treatments, finally 12 months after vasectomy I’ve nearly recovered, followed my gut and it led me to recovery, most doctors don’t know enough about tick Bourne infections! A couple of things to try will lead you in a direction
doxycycline if you get any improvement keep looking
HBOT any improvement will show you to look this direction
Thanks Andrew. All in all I’ve been diagnosed with neuroborreliosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, and RMSF. I spent 7 months on doxy and mepron for babesia. I then switched to bactrim, mallarone, and azithromax when the doxy/mepron combo didn’t seem to help. I’m now on disulfiram and considering 28 days of IV next week. I’d like to try IVIg if I can get insurance on board. it’s hit my CNS with hardest. My memory is shot and my speech is fading. I recently tested positive for PANDAS/PANS and I’ve had recent atrophy in my brain. From what I’ve researched this is all consistent with lyme. I’ll look more into HBOT. If you’ve got any other recommendations I’ll take them. I’ve tried almost everything but with limited success. You’re fortunate you caught yours relatively quickly. It took me 4 years. Perhaps that’s part of the problem.
I have been suffering for many of the symptoms you are describing above for going on 9 months. I have, too, have visited a ton of different specialists – Orthopedics, Neurologists, ENTs, Rheumatologists, Gastroenterologists, Vestibular Therapists, … and the list goes on and on.
Strangely enough, I had my vasectomy about a month after having had COVID for the first time. Going into the procedure, I had zero lingering COVID symptoms so felt comfortable still going on with the procedure. About a month after the procedure, I started developing a multitude of symptoms strange symptoms – primarily those covered in your experience above as well as a few others.
If you don’t mind my asking, which type of doctor discovered the coinfections you mention? I am beginning to wonder if I have some as well or whether what I’m looking at is really just long COVID.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
One possibility is that the surgery damaged your testicular blood supply, and has caused you to develop primary hypogonadism (androgen insufficiency due to testicular damage). In addition to the better known testosterone, the testicles also produce a hormone called pregnenolone (and small amounts of several other hormones too). Pregnenolone is quite important because it acts as a raw material from which your body makes numerous other hormones. If you’re no longer producing enough of it, it’s likely to make you deficient in numerous other hormones. It’s also a precursor to the neurosteroid allopregnanolone. It’s possible that your symptoms of tinnitus, vertigo attacks and visual disturbances are the result of your body no longer producing enough pregnenolone, and your neurosteroids becoming depleted as a result.
Prior to getting my HRT sorted out (I suffer from secondary hypogonadism), I used to experience tinnitus, vertigo attacks and acephalgic migraines (where you get visual disturbances and other symptoms of a migraine, but without the headache). I found that putting a pinch of pregnenolone powder (which you can get by pulling apart pregnenolone capsules) in my mouth and letting it sit there, so it would absorb through the mucous membranes, would normally make those symptoms clear up within a few minutes.
If you’ve developed primary hypogonadism as a result of the surgery, that brings a whole host of other problems in its wake too, such as loss of sex drive, depression, loss of energy and drive, muscle wasting, neck pain, back pain and joint pain.
As I saw someone else mentioning, if they gave you an MRI with contrast, that can cause heaps of problems too. It turns out the manufacturers faked the safety testing and the FDA let the faked results through. Everyone who has one of those contrast MRIs ends up with deposits of the highly toxic heavy metal gadolinium scattered throughout their body, and lots of people have been getting sick as a result (with doctors pooh poohing the symptoms, or blaming them on whatever the MRI was originally given for). CT contrast is OK, it doesn’t contain gadolinium.
Lots of good feedback on here. I’ve tried pregnenolone in the past, intraorally, sublingual, and more recently topically. I’ve suffered from secondary hypogonadism since the procedure and that’s a common complaint after vasectomy.
A 1976 article in Clinical Endocrinology concluded “vasectomy appeared to be associated with a significant decrease in the plasma levels of pregnenolone, dehydroepiandrosterone and androstenedione.”
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much change and different dosages.
When you get stuck like this the best thing to do is see a really good complementary energy medicine or consciousness medicine Practitioner I would try Bodytalk it is the most profound healing system I have come across.
You’re a dentist correct? Mercury exposure and surgery with an underlying adrenal impairment. If secondary, maybe you had a tiny stroke on pituitary gland. Mercury is known to accumulate in the adrenal/pituitary gland and hypothalamus. The gadolinium from the MRI procedure is causing many, including myself problems with retaining of this heavy metal. It is synergistic in its toxic effect with other metals present in the body. You can search pubmed for this info. It could be you had a reaction to this surgical procedure and then had gadolinium and other toxic substances introduced into your body to cause all of this. A Lyme infection? Maybe it was always there and then the body was assaulted from toxic substances.
Methyl B12 in very large doses can be effective for pain in some people. I have a mutation whereby b12 is not recycled correctly. I found out quite accidentally after a dental procedure that Methyl B12 could alleviate pain. that was untouched by opoids or NSAIDs. I later found pubmed articles confirming this.
I am also struggling with vertigo that comes and goes sometimes so bad I can’t walk. First time I had to crawl out of the house to go to ER. They couldn’t find anything wrong. My ENT suggested a viral infection and needing time for my nerves to heal. I’m severely hearing impaired to start with.
What type of B12 please?(liquid , sublingual,…)please?
This makes a lot of sense. I’ve had part of my cervix removed with the LEEP procedure and I had brain changes. I have written a book about my experiences which I called ‘A Cut In the Brain’ because that’s literally how it feels that if you cut sexual organs you are messing with someone’s brain. It’s so neurologically complex and we just don’t understand the human body enough to understand these side effects.
I’m so sorry to hear that men are suffering from head/ sexual organ issues too. I run a campaign to raise awareness about problems with the LEEP procedure, but if anyone wants to join forces to raise awareness about this brain-pelvis connection then please get in touch.
I read this with great interest, looking for clues and I found two. The first and perhaps the most important is the benefit from a bath with epsom salts. The second is the relief from allithiamine. Epsom salts gives a dose of magnesium and thiamine and magnesium are cofactors to a series of enzymes that preside over energy metabolism. Even their mild deficiency results in pseudohypoxia in the brain. Also, it is essential to be aware that ALL pain is perceived in the brain, irrespective of its source. A relatively minor degree of energy deficiency in the brain excites its metabolic activity and gives rise to increased pain perception. Thiamine deficiency is either precipitated by “stress” as in surgery or increases an existing asymtomatic minor deficiency already existing. I have been interested in the relationship of MTHFR deficiency with thiamine but don’t know why but in my experience it seems to be a relatively common association. Lastly your contact with mercury as a heavy metal might have set up a predisposing factor. I suggest that you increase the dose of allithiamine to pharmacological doses (100 mgs) and increase as symptoms improve. There is no toxicity to big doses. Add an equivalent dose of magnesium taurate ( around 250 mg) and continue your existing vitamins. If you are consuming sugar or alcohol in ANY form discontinue either or both.
Derrick, thanks for your comments. I’ll definitely give this a try. A lot has transpired since this article first posted which has given more insight on my health. A little extra background, 6 months prior to the vasectomy I developed mild epididymitis and two epididymal cysts on my right side. I was nervous about the growths being cancer so I saw the urologist. He diagnosed them as benign cysts via ultrasound, told me not to worry and performed the vasectomy 2 weeks later. You know the rest of the story. I didn’t think this info was relevant when I wrote the article but I now feel it’s pertinent.
Another telling clue was the uveitis. It showed up early on but went away. Only so many conditions cause uveitis, mainly infection or immune related. If it were autoimmune, it should appear more regularly. The middle ear damage was also suspected to be either viral or bacterial infection according to the pro-neurologist.
Well…unbeknownst to me at the time I had a nasty infection that went undiagnosed until just 6 months ago (about 4 years total). Since this article posted I have tested positive for rickettsia rickettsii, ehrlichia chaffeensis, and babesia microti. All of these bugs can come from a single tick bite and each brings its own baggage. Babesia, for instance, is a common cause of elevated intracranial pressure and headaches.
The relationship to the vasectomy is a bit more complicated. I didn’t have symptoms prior to the procedure but it’s possible that the infection was hiding quietly. Perhaps the vasectomy was just enough stress to trigger a reaction on a previously latent issue. Research from the late 90’s shows testicular swelling and cysts to be one of the first symptoms in guinea pigs after inoculation with rickettsia. Ehrlichia chaffeensis is a common cause of epydidymitis. 30% of patients with a positive Lyme test have borrelia DNA in their semen. In each of my subsequent tick panels, my urine tests have consistently shown higher bacterial counts than blood draws. I find that very telling. I think the bugs were concentrated in my vas deferens. I’d love to directly aspirate my left and right epididymis for testing but my urologist isn’t a believer (yet!).
Vasectomy is a very common procedure that has a black cloud of controversy if you really dive deep into the procedure. There have been countless books, papers, websites, lawsuits, clinics, and research dedicated to post vas pain and complications, much of which has been largely ignored by the medical community. More recently there has been focus on sperm antibodies that develop post vas and the impact this might have on the body. I would like to see a study looking at what happens to infections, STD’s, and other bacteria once the immune privileged blood testis barrier is broken. If you’ve got low grade chlamydia, for instance, and it’s isolated to the epididymis and reproductive tract, what happens once the vasectomy is performed and the bug no longer has an exit point?
Vasectomy has been associated with higher rates of depression, divorce, pain, even dementia (FTD/PPA). There was a guy a few years ago (Alan Frazier) who became deathly sick after a vasectomy. After years of suffering and a lack of help from doctors, he ended up shooting up a Reno, NV hospital. Among other things his biggest complaint was he was so sick he could no longer deer hunt. Deer hunting was his passion and he blamed the vasectomy as the onset of his ailments. It’s largely been suggested that he wasn’t sick and it was 100% psychosomatic. I’ll let you connect the dots and make a guess on that one.
I’m anxious to try your suggestions. What’s the advantage of Mg taurate over Mg glycinate? I’m just as sick as I’ve ever been but now I have a clearer path towards recovery. Tick issues can be difficult to treat. Perhaps my problems have nothing to do with ticks. Considering how sick I have been and the reputation these bugs have, its hard not to blame anything else.
I had a vasectomy last summer. Since then I have had a number of medical issues very similar to yours, especially the head aches and pain. I was been convinced it was related to the vasectomy, but no doctor gives it a moment of consideration. The idea this could last forever is depressing. How are you doing now?
Mike,
Since this posted I have been able to find some answers. I still struggle everyday but through this website I was able to find some very (very) smart people. In my case, the vasectomy was the trigger for a much larger diagnosis. Whether or not the vasectomy was the main culprit is yet to be determined but had I not had the procedure done, I probably would’ve never had any issues. I sent you an email directly in case I can help in any way.
So sorry for all of your health issues post surgery. Please check out the Wilkings protocol and what is called Nasal specific technique. I and my wife have just started the Wilkings protocol to early to see results and it makes a lot of common sense. I have not done the Nasal specific technique yet. My chiropractor is trained in doing it I just haven’t been in to see him since I learned of this. Hopefully some of this information will be useful to you!
I was considering getting a Vasectomy, but now im now sure 🙁
I understand that my case is NOT the norm. However, vasectomy is portrayed as a “quick snip” with little to no consequences. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“Chronic scrotal pain after vasectomy is more common than previously described, affecting almost one in seven patients.” ~British Journal of Urology Int’l 2004
“At 7 months after vasectomy about 15% of previously asymptomatic men have scrotal discomfort.” ~British Journal of Urology Int’l 2007
Because of the nature of this surgery, most men are unwilling to admit when they have problems. There have been hundreds of papers written on PVPS, including two books. There was even a mass shooting at a hospital in 2013 from a patient with complications following vasectomy. Urology continues to turn and look the other way.
Odds are in your favor that things will go smoothly. Personally, if I had known 15% going into the surgery, I wouldn’t have done it. And…this number completely ignores the other health mess this has created.
Good luck.
Well written. More important is that you have survived against the odds and the doctors. We probably passed in the halls at a Mayo Clinic as they denied my symptoms. My story is just as complicated and follows a similar path. The original link to pseudotumor is puzzling, but some of your increased problems may unfortunately be explained by the gadolinium used in the contrast at your three month MRI . The increase in nerve pain, muscle weakness, worsening occipital headache, tinnitus and hearing damage, etc can be caused by the heavy metal toxicity. See gadolinium deposition disease. This can be diagnosed with a urine test, but there is no cure, and rarely any medical assistance There is hope for improvement once you know the problem of needing to detox the heavy metals , using supplements, diet changes, and knowing everything you already know about your genetics. At least you will not be researching alone and can find others who understand.
That’s really interesting. I love the shoot first aim second mentality within medicine. It’ll be interesting to see what common procedures we do today will be outlawed in 20 years. I believe strongly vasectomy simply isn’t healthy for the body. What once was disposed of naturally is now left up to the immune and lymphatic system which already have plenty of other things to worry about.
Unfortunately the medical professionals are not educated on nutrition or recognising vitamin & mineral deficiencies.This chap is a dentist he has been exposed to heavy metals amalgam,Mercury,& most importantly exposed to nitrous oxide which oxides or depletes vitamin b12 in the body resulting in systemic nerve damage & blood disorders.He also is Mthfr a genetic mutation which causes a methylation disorder which depletes vitamin b12 ,folate,vitamin b6.The operation itself may have caused some nerve damage but the fact he is Mthfr the gene has been expressed by stress.All symptoms from gait,neuralgia,loss of sight,memory,vertigo ,joint pain are b12def.View videos on b12awareness.org for life saving info.
I’ve been taking methylated B vitamins (oral) since the MTHFR was diagnosed two years ago (homocysteine supreme by Designs for Health). Allithiamine was started 3 weeks ago. I have certainly considered the B12 connection. Spectracell reports for intracellular vitamin defiencies show deficiencies consistent w/ MTHFR but not at severe levels.
Hi there. I’m sure you’re probably sick to death of people suggesting alternative approaches. But, in case you aren’t, you should look into a z-health trainer. They’re trained to look for and help fix issues with the vestibular system and neurological systems. A good place to start would be here:
http://zhealtheducation.com/find-zhealth-trainer/
Thanks for the information!
Thank you so much for sharing your story, BH! I’m so sorry for all you have been through. Your story is truly heartbreaking. It’s very well-written and thought-provoking too.
I’m curious about what medications you were given post-vasectomy. Were you given any antibiotics? Your symptoms are very similar to those of fluoroquinolone toxicity, and a recent study showed that a high percentage of pseudotumor cerebri cases are correlated with fluoroquinolone use – https://www.hormonesmatter.com/pseudotumor-cerebri-fluoroquinolones-birth-control/.
I hope that telling your story here is healing. I have found that writing about my experience is empowering, and even healing. I hope for the same for you.
Best regards,
Lisa
No antibiotics post vasectomy or anytime since. Doxycycline and Ciprofloxacin are usually the first meds given for post vasectomy complications including epididymitis. They were offered but I refused after the urologist admitted I didn’t have any clinical signs of infection. I’m personally strongly against the use of fluoroquinolones and refuse to take or prescribe them. I’ve seen and heard too much about this class of drugs. Thanks for the response!
Is there a theory to connect these symptoms to vasectomy other than correlation?
Ann, correlated mostly by timing. I’ve hypothesized about every situation possible. Believe it or not, I’m not the only one out there experiencing these issues after vasectomy. I’ve had several people reach out to me and the internet is littered with similar stories. The only consistency I have found is hormonal which seems to fit given the nature of the surgery. However, it’s hard to rule out autoimmune, lymphatic blockage, arterial damage, sarcoidosis, etc. There is research linking all of these issues to vasectomy but it’s been an uphill battle trying to make progress towards a solution.