Part Sixteen: The Harms of Withdrawal and Urethral Compression Contraception and Physical Contraception
◇A Guide to Caring for Your Husband's Health as a Good Wife◇
Previous articleBAO JIAN ZHI SHI
Health knowledge
What are the disadvantages of withdrawal as a form of contraception?
While withdrawal, a method of contraception, seems simple and easy to implement, it has the following drawbacks:
◎Easily leads to contraceptive failure: This is because before male orgasm and ejaculation, a small amount of semen may leak into the vagina along with the contraction of the vas deferens, making the contraceptive effect unreliable.
◎Affects harmonious sexual life: Because contraception must be considered during sexual intercourse, and one must be ready to withdraw the penis from the vagina at any time, the mind is highly tense, which directly affects sexual response and orgasm, thus affecting the harmony of sexual life.
◎Can lead to male sexual dysfunction: During male orgasm, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, and the reproductive organs become congested with blood, resulting in penile erection. If intercourse is suddenly interrupted during orgasm, it will inevitably have adverse effects on both physical and psychological well-being. Over time, this can easily lead to premature ejaculation, impotence, and other problems. Furthermore, forcibly interrupting intercourse before normal ejaculation, or ejaculating outside the vagina, can cause dysfunction of the central nervous system and the ejaculation center in the lumbosacral region, easily leading to functional anejaculation.
◎It can lead to female sexual dysfunction: When the male reaches orgasm, the female often has not yet reached orgasm. If intercourse is suddenly interrupted at this time and ejaculation occurs outside the vagina, the female's sexual desire will not be satisfied, which can easily lead to female frigidity. It can also easily lead to chronic pelvic congestion in women, resulting in symptoms such as lower back pain, abdominal pain, and backache.
◎Impact on Marital Relationship: If both partners, especially the woman, are unable to achieve sexual satisfaction due to the aforementioned reasons, their sexual psychology may be repressed, leading to family discord and affecting the marital relationship. Furthermore, if contraception fails, it can cause unfounded suspicions, further exacerbating conflicts and estrangement between the couple.
Urethral compression contraception
The urethral compression method of contraception involves the man pressing his index and middle fingers firmly against the perineum towards the pubic symphysis during intercourse just before ejaculation. This temporarily closes the urethra, forcing the semen into the bladder. Because the semen does not enter the vagina, it prevents pregnancy.
The urethral compression method of contraception requires the person seeking help to be familiar with the anatomical location of the urethra in the perineum and the method of compression. It is crucial that the urethra be compressed before ejaculation and until the penis is withdrawn from the vagina. This method requires complete and accurate compression to prevent semen from flowing into the vagina; failure to do so will result in contraceptive failure.
Although the urethral compression method of contraception is simple to perform, it requires a high level of skill and is difficult for most people to master. Moreover, frequent use is detrimental to health and its contraceptive effect is unreliable. Therefore, frequent use is not recommended.
Why shouldn't urethral compression be used for contraception?
Because urethral compression contraception violates the physiological laws of normal ejaculation, it can lead to the following harms:
◎Causes retrograde ejaculation in men: Both semen and urine are expelled through the urethra. Under normal circumstances, the bladder sphincter contracts during ejaculation, and semen can only be expelled from the urethral opening. If urethral compression is frequently used, semen will flow backward into the bladder. Afterward, even without urethral compression, semen will not be expelled from the urethral opening during ejaculation, but will instead flow into the bladder. White, flocculent semen can be seen in the first urine expelled after intercourse.
◎Causes male urinary tract inflammation: Due to frequent pressure on the perineum, semen flows backward into the bladder, which not only easily causes discomfort such as urethral burning, but also easily leads to urinary tract inflammation.
◎Unreliable Contraceptive Effect: Before ejaculation, a small amount of lubricating secretions from the bulbourethral glands and prostate gland leak from the male urethra. At this time, a small amount of sperm often enters the vagina along with this fluid. Furthermore, if urethral compression is incomplete, or if the pressure on the urethra is slightly relaxed before the penis is withdrawn from the vagina, any semen that leaks into the vagina can still cause pregnancy in the wife.
◎Causes erectile dysfunction: Using urethral compression contraception often leads to high levels of anxiety during sexual intercourse, with fear of not being able to control the timing of ejaculation and worrying about contraceptive failure. This excessive mental burden can severely inhibit the excitability of the sexual center and the function of sexual function, resulting in erectile dysfunction.
Male physical contraception
Physical contraception utilizes thermal or external heat effects to inhibit spermatogenesis in the testes, thus achieving contraception. Its principle is based on the fact that sperm production requires an environment below body temperature. Therefore, by using certain physical methods to interfere with scrotal temperature regulation and raise the temperature around the scrotum, sperm production can be inhibited.
Common physical contraceptive methods include microwave, ultrasound, laser, warm water bath, and infrared irradiation.
Microwaves are high-frequency electromagnetic waves that can generate significant and penetrating heat. When applied to the scrotum, they can significantly increase its temperature, interfering with the function of testicular germinal epithelial cells and inhibiting sperm production. The effectiveness rate is approximately 98%, with no obvious side effects, no impact on male sexual function, and sperm count quickly returns to normal after discontinuation.
Ultrasound can affect cell function and human metabolism through the heat energy and mechanical vibrations it generates; when applied to the scrotum, it can affect its spermatogenesis.
Lasers can raise the temperature by converting light energy into heat energy, which can also interfere with testicular spermatogenesis.
Other physical contraceptive methods, such as warm water baths, also have some contraceptive effect. In general, while physical contraceptive methods have some effect, their true practical value remains to be explored.
Does vasectomy affect testicular function?
The testes have two main functions: first, the seminiferous epithelium produces sperm, maintaining fertility; second, the interstitial cells secrete testosterone, a male endocrine hormone that enters the bloodstream directly and is distributed throughout the body to maintain male secondary sexual characteristics and normal sexual function.
Vasectomy, whether performed via ligation or occlusion, as long as the procedure is followed correctly and local blood supply is not damaged, only the pathway for sperm output is blocked post-surgery. The seminiferous tubules of the testes retain their normal spermatogenic function, and the produced sperm and testicular fluid flow into the epididymis and can be reabsorbed. Even if epididymal congestion may occur in the short term, the symptoms will lessen or even disappear once the secretion and absorption of testicular and epididymal fluid are re-established. Clinical observation data shows that 20 years after ligation, vasectomy reversal still yields motile sperm in the semen and restores fertility, indicating that vasectomy does not impair testicular spermatogenic function.
Studies have found that after vasectomy, endocrine hormones such as follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone, estradiol, and prolactin remain within the normal range. Some reports indicate short-term increases or decreases in testosterone and LH levels after surgery, which may be related to local tissue damage or surgical stress; these levels usually return to normal within six months post-surgery. Extensive research data suggests that vasectomy does not interfere with the function of the hypothalamus-pituitary-testicular axis.