Historie der männlichen Sterilisation

The history of severance of the vas deferens, i.e., male sterilization or vasectomy, first began in the nineteenth century; however, the anatomical principles were already known 400 years before and even at that time corresponding animal experiments were already carried out. Vasectomy was initially carried out for alleviation of prostate gland complaints as it was falsely assumed that this operation had similar effects to an orchidectomy. At the beginning of the twentieth century male sterilization became very important through the Austrian physiologist and biologist Eugen Steinach, who alleged that this had a rejuvenating effect. Vasectomy as a planned voluntary method of contraception became increasingly more frequent in Europe and the rest of the world only after the middle of the twentieth century. The previous decades encompassed the darkest period of male sterilization in Europe and also in the USA as hundreds of thousands of such interventions were compulsorily carried out with eugenic indications.