Editing Vasectomy (section)

==History==
The first human vasectomies were performed in the late 19th century. The procedure was initially used mainly as a treatment for [[Benign prostatic hyperplasia|prostate enlargement]] and as a [[eugenic]] method for sterilizing "degenerates".<ref name=Drake/> Vasectomy as a method of voluntary birth control began during the Second World War.<ref name=leavesley/> 

The first recorded vasectomy was performed on a dog in 1823.<ref name=leavesley/> The first human vasectomies were performed to treat [[benign prostatic hyperplasia]], or enlargement of the prostate. [[Castration]] had sometimes been used as a treatment for this condition in the 1880s, but, given the serious side effects, doctors sought alternative treatments. The first to suggest vasectomy as an alternative to castration may have been [[James Ewing Mears]] (in 1890), or [[Jean Casimir Félix Guyon]].<ref name=Drake/>
The first human vasectomy is thought to have been performed by [[Reginald Harrison]].<ref name=leavesley/>{{Additional citation needed|date=May 2018}} By 1900, Harrison reported that he had performed more than 100 vasectomies with no adverse outcomes.<ref name=Drake/>

In the late 1890s, vasectomy also came to be proposed as a eugenic measure for the sterilization of men considered unfit to reproduce. The first case report of vasectomy in the United States was in 1897, by A.&nbsp;J. Ochsner, a surgeon in Chicago, in a paper titled, "Surgical treatment of habitual criminals". He believed vasectomy to be a simple, effective means for stemming the tide of [[Social degeneration|racial degeneration]] widely believed to be occurring.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=A.J.|first=Ochsner|date=1969|title=Surgical Treatment of Habitual Criminals|journal=Buck V Bell Documents|url=https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/buckvbell/81/|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
|title=A Century of Eugenics in America: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Era
|editor-last=Lombardo|editor-first=Paul A.
|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2011
|isbn=978-0-253-22269-5
|chapter=The Hoosier Connection: Compulsory Sterilization as Moral Hygiene
|page=19
|last=Carlson|first=Elof Axel
}}</ref> In 1902, [[Harry C. Sharp]], the surgeon at the Indiana Reformatory, reported that he had sterilized 42 inmates in an effort to both reduce criminal behavior in those individuals and prevent the birth of future criminals.<ref name=reilly/>

[[Eugen Steinach]] (1861–1944), an Austrian physician, believed that a unilateral vasectomy (severing only one of the two vasa deferentia) in older individuals could restore general vigor and [[sexual potency]], shrink [[benign prostatic hyperplasia|enlarged prostate]]s, and cure various ailments by somehow boosting the hormonal output of the vasectomized testicle.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Schultheiss|first1=Dirk|last2=Engel|first2=Rainer M.|s2cid=12706657|date=2003-11-01|title=G. Frank Lydston (1858–1923) revisited: androgen therapy by testicular implantation in the early twentieth century|journal=World Journal of Urology|language=en|volume=21|issue=5|pages=356–363|doi=10.1007/s00345-003-0370-z|pmid=14586546|issn=0724-4983}}</ref> This surgery, which became very popular in the 1920s, was undertaken by many wealthy individuals, including [[Sigmund Freud]] and [[W. B. Yeats]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/05/09/yeatss-second-puberty/|title=Yeats's Second Puberty|last=Ellmann|first=Richard|journal=The New York Review of Books|access-date=2017-08-23|date=1985-05-09|volume=32 |issue=8 }}</ref>  Since these operations lacked rigorous controlled trials, any rejuvenating effect was likely due to the [[Placebo|placebo effect]], and with the later development of synthetic injectable hormones, this operation fell out of vogue.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBbUo2AcJzgC&q=steinach%20operation%20unilateral&pg=PA90|title=Reproduction by Design: Sex, Robots, Trees, and Test-Tube Babies in Interwar Britain|last=McLaren|first=Angus|date=2012-03-09|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-56069-4|language=en}}</ref>

Vasectomy began to be regarded as a method of consensual [[birth control]] during the [[Second World War]].<ref name=leavesley/> The first vasectomy program on a national scale was launched in 1954 in [[India]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sharma|first1=Sanjay|title=A Study of Male Sterilization with No Scalpel Vasectomy|journal=JK Science|date=April–June 2014|volume=16|issue=2|page=67|url=http://www.jkscience.org/archives/volume162/originalarticle4.pdf|access-date=23 October 2015|ref=jkscience}}</ref> In the 1970s, India enacted a [[The Emergency (India)#Forced_sterilisation|coercive sterilization campaign]] which resulted in millions of vasectomies. Today, India's [[Compulsory_sterilization#India|sterilization program]] focuses on coercing poor women.