Hi Jim,

First, your question about what Elaine meant about it being "easy to
mess yourself up". She means that ultrasound is a medical device that
requires training to use properly; and also that it is completely
unknown whether there is any dosage that is both safe, and fully
effective as a contraceptive. So you are taking a significant risk of
permanently damaging your testes if you experiment with this.

Second - we of course share your desire to see promising male methods
researched. That's why we put up our web site!

However, we did not include ultrasound on our methods page, because we
have heard doubts expressed about the authenticity of the original
claims of efficacy, and we have not been able to find any published
sources, in medical journals or in the popular press, describing this
research.

The lack of publication in medical journals, combined with safety
concerns, may explain why there has been little further work in this
area. But of course we would love to be proved wrong about this; if you
succeed in finding published information about this method, please send
us some references!

Lastly, bear in mind that in the article you quote, ultrasound is being
used at high intensity to perform cauterization, a very different
technique than the delicate general heating that is claimed to produce
contraceptive effects; so research on the one does not necessarily have
bearing on the other.

Regards,

Joe Wielgosz
Co-author,
http://www.malecontraceptives.org






jp40177 wrote:
>
> I read today on http://webmd.lycos.com/content/article/1687.51310 a
> January 28, 2002 article:
>
> "Nathaniel M. Fried, PhD, assistant professor of urology at Johns
> Hopkins University, leads a research team working on an ultrasound
> vasectomy machine. The ultrasound device has three parts. One is a
> water balloon that covers the skin. Chilled water runs through the
> balloon to keep the skin from burning. The second part is a clamp
> that holds the vas deferens in place. The third part is an ultrasound
> machine that focuses sound waves on the vas deferens. At the point of
> focus, the ultrasound energy creates intense heat.
>
> " 'The idea is to heat up or cook the vas,' Fried says. 'It
> immediately cooks the tissue so that the vas closes. Then healing of
> the tissue creates scar tissue that further blocks the vas.'"
>
> WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??? I read at the male contraception
> information project http://www.gumption.org/mcip/paper.html that
> ultrasound had shown great promise as a heat method, and incidentally
> circumvents the well-known blockage/pressure pain problem of
> vasectomy, but ultrasound research could not get funding because it
> SOUNDS like radiation. SO WHY IS ULTRASOUND SURGERY FUNDED WHEN
> ULTRASOUND HEAT IS NOT!!??
>
> Ultrasound HEAT seems to me to be an ideal contraceptive. It is non
> surgical, non hormonal, non interfering and is amenable to either
> temporary or permanent sterilization as desired. If the object were
> really, as the article claims, to make sterilization attractive to
> more men, then Fried would be working on ultrasound HEAT, not
> ultrasound VASECTOMY. This new vasectomy is WORSE than current
> methods because it is not open-ended!
>
> However, speaking of ultrasound heat, at Male Contraception
> Information Project page http://www.gumption.org/mcip/hint.html there
> are Helpful Hints, Heat Method Hints for do-it-yourselfers, and the
> advice concerning ultrasound heat is not to try this at home
> because "It is too easy to mess yourself up with it if you don't know
> all the details." Could the http://www.malecontraceptives.org web
> site owners be more specific? What is "messing yourself up" and how
> does it happen?
>
> Jim
>
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