Vasectomy - pros, cons, other :)

Hey all,

Wondering if anyone can share their experiences of pros and cons of vasectomy? Its on the table, while DD is young and I am less likely to be fertile... hopefully by the time his infertility kicks in will be good timing, as I do worry about unplanned pregnancy a great deal - especially with my cheeky little pill bubba.

Also, we'd likely go into the city to get it done, but for the follow-up, do you know if we could just give a sample to the local pathology place? Or doesn't it work that way? Because he's out of time off and really pushing it to ask for any extra days - and a a 3 hour round trip is so not appealing any day lol. It'd be a Friday so he has the weekend to rest up.

Unsure about giving sample to a local pathology, though I don't see why not. But just wanted to say that my DH is getting his done as we speak, and his specialist told us the follow up is around 6 months, if that helps with the issue of leave.

DH had it done last year when DD3 was a few months old :)

He needed another urological procedure done at the same time due to a pre existing problem (made it easy to convince HIM to be the one to get something done!)

I cant see why your GP couldnt do the follow up specimen review to make sure all the pipes are cleared out! DHs specialist made him wait until 20 ejaculations and 3 months had passed to get a Sperm Analysis done and check everything had healed. I would get a referal from your gp then see if you can contact the specialist directly and ask if thats a possibility in your circumstances. Obviously if there were any issues with healing or if the analysis wasnt clear I would assume you would need to return to the specialist (possibly doing another SA at a later date).

DH had a cold at the time he had his procedures done and that was most of hi sooking came from, rather than the vasectomy and other procedure. Think manflu! Luckily they were still able to do it while he had a cold as he had booked leave to get it done.

The weekend should be long enough to rest unless he gets unusually bad bruising or does a heavy manual job

I just called a clinic and they said the only extra fees are the local pathology lab's when you take your sample there. So there is my answer I guess :)

From what I can see the recovery seems pretty quick. What sort of fees did you pay? Seems to vary a great deal!

DH had his done last year. On a Friday and was back at work Monday. He was a little sore but only needed pain killers the first day (scalpel free vasectomy). He had to wait three months then submit a sample at local lab. It cost $800. :)

For my DH, he was only sore for a couple of days and it wasn't bad bad if that makes sense. He had it done in Aug 11 and we had the all clear in Nov. He had the follow up sample to the local pathology and had a phone call within a day or two. He had to make an appt to drop his sample in. I can't think of any cons. Except maybe no chance of a whoopsie baby now ;) Pros- cheaper & easier for him than for me. I did all the growing & pushing so it's only fair lol. I don't have to go on the pill anymore. We had met the medicare safety net too due to my OB fees with DD so we got most of the outlay back.

DH had his done on Tuesday. It was $450, but he got back $190 from Medicare. Not covered by our PHI. He was given a couple of sample pots and a path request and just told to drop it in after about 20 ejaculations. He was given a medical certificate for 13 days, but was only planning on having 3 days plus the weekend.

He was in a fair bit of pain that night. He seems to have developed a complication too, one side started bleeding through the stitches yesterday and won't stop. Silly man didn't tell me until I got home (6pm) so it was too late to contact the doctor. We tried to bandage it up last night, but it didn't work. He has called them this morning, but he made me come to work so not sure what's happening. But OMG, the bruising! It's not pretty.

Hubby had a week off. It depends on what they do for work. Any lifting or walking and he probably should take more time off.
It was $800 for us. Nothing back from medicare and no phi.

Psychologically it was hard on both of us after. In the end we had it reversed as it felt wrong and unnatural to be 'infertile'
Hubby was only 24 though.
We also realized we weren't done.
So for us its not something ww would do again.

Thanks heaps for all your replies, really helps :)

Our PHI insurance would have covered it without a gap (but not sure if the vasectomy on its own would have been coverede?) However DH was given the option of staying overnight due to the second procedure he had or he could be discharged at 7pm. He decided to stay because he thought it would be too hard for me to pick him up. Thankyou $200 overnight hospital fee!!!! I would have preferred to pick hi up and use the $200 for a hotel a couple of months later!

Ouch Cally hope your DH gets it sorted, that doesnt sound pleasant. DH had minor brusing and tenderness, his mates entire shaft went purple from bleeding due to the vasectomy, he said it wasnt too painful but apparently looked terrible! Kelly dont tell your DP these stories ;)

Oooo I wont! :) He expects to be sore for a day or two, worried about sitting down lol. But from what I have read and on here its more minor abdominal pain than anything.

We looked into this but have decided it's best for me to get my tubes done.

The thing that turned us off the most is the fact that the body still produces the sperm, and instead of it coming out where it's supposed to it basically just floats around the body. DH already has an auto immune disease so we thought it might do more harm than good if he had anything "foreign" in his body.

Something to think about anyway :)

I would recommend a day procedure with a local and then take him home immediately. Ice the area for 24 hours - 20 min on, 20 min off pretty much and lots of painkillers! Apparently it is more painful than a cesarean :rofl: DP had to do 50 evictions before retesting for sperm so he had a tally going :lol:

We had DP done at Marie Stopes and I think it cost $300 from memory but that was 4 years ago.

Dh got his fine through the public system, it only cost us $150 which was for the visit to the surgeon. There was no waiting time as we opted to have it done at our local hospital. We also didn't have to pay for the sample but we did have to take it to the lab an hour away. Like others have said, he was only in pain for a couple of days.

Our surgeon wouldn't perform the vasectomy without both dh and my permission. We had a mini counselling session and had to sign a document that stated we both agreed to his vasectomy. Did any of you have to do that too? ( sorry font mean to hijack your thread)

Kel, when DH had his done he was told that he couldn't take a sample to the local pathology collection centre as they needed a live specimen, so he would have had to drive over an hour away and he didn't feel like doing the job in a toilet/cubicle ;) so he never went and had it done. It must have worked though LOL because there's been no more babies. He had it done publicly and it only cost him the GP appointments. It did take a full week for him to not have any real soreness, but if he bumped the area he'd act like they'd been cut off :lol:

Tinks, I never had to sign anything. I never went to any appointments with him and we never had to have any counselling. Our youngest child was only 6 weeks old when he had the first appointment and he was nearly 5mths old by the time he had it done.

Good point about the live specimen Trillian. DH dropped his in to a local pathology centre so it wasnt an issue for us but if you are rural/semi-rural it could be an issue.

We had no counselling and I didnt need to sign anything. I dont know if this is always the case with DHs surgeon, but DH was 41 and we had three children and were certain we have completed our family

I think its strange in this day and age that individuals don't have autonomy over their own bodies. Could you imagine if a man had to give permission for his wife to have her tubes tied or have a termination! I do think recommending counselling is a good thing but requiring it :dunno:

Sorry this is getting off topic.

They called it counselling when DH went (I went with him) but it wasn't really. It was all done in one session. We went in. Dr explained the procedure to DH. Dr said "ok you ready?" DH said "yep" and off they went. snip snip snip done! I didn't have to sign anything but I was there with a 4mo DD sleeping in her capsule lol! He did fill in a form beforehand that asked how many kids we had, reason for vasectomy etc but I don't think the doc even looked at it.

My husband had it done privately and we were still out if pocket $1000 after the refund from PHI. He drove himself home afterwards and went to work the next day and had no pain at all until about 4 days later after a day of heavy lifting.
Pros are no more babies ;)
Cons are no more babies ;)