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 ;)

No, I didn't have to sign anything either.

Bleeding has stopped - went back to the surgeon today, had it checked, all fine, just needed to put some pressure on it (kind of tricky). But he was looking heaps better when I got home and is moving more freely (although kind of bowlegged)

Dh got his done a few years ago. Out of pocket for the first appointment to the surgeon, but nothing there after for the surgery at the public hospital. We had a wait though, due to being regional and the surgeon one did 6 vasectomies a month.

No testing (bad DH), but been fine so far. No scares ;) We are not so worried, as DH got an infection in one (it can happen, but is pretty rare), so one is actually sterile. He still does get some pain in the one that got infected.

I did not notice it, but DH did. Apparently I smiled a lot, once he had the surgery ;)

Can't notice any difference in output, DH has commented that it is less sticky.

We didn't have any counselling or anything, I never even met the surgeon.

Cost, again I'm not sure. DH had to have his under a general so we had extra fees.

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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)

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I had to sign the consent form but didn't have to go to a counselling session. I guess he figured with 4 kids and being in our mid to late 30's we were done ;)

Kelly, I'm sure you remember the issues we had with DH returning positive samples for months afterwards. It was a rather stressful time for us but DH said he'd have the procedure again if need be, so that must have meant it wasn't all that bad physically. Emotionally it felt a bit weird for a bit there (being final and no more babies) but now we're happy with our choice. Sex life has never been better too :)

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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.

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We were told that the sample doesn't need to be a fresh because they aren't testing for motility, just volume so it didnt matter if it was a few hours old :dunno:

My first DH went in to get it done about a year after #3 in the local GP but unfortunately after they opened him up a vein was wrapped around the tube so couldn't do it. A few weeks later we feel with #4
He had to wait for the surgeon to come into town, about 3 mths later and he had it done with no issues.
After I had our son I refused to do the deed until I had written conformation that he had zero swimmers...which I got :)
No costs, through the public system and no counselling (we where 28 and 33)

Hey Raven yes I remember! I hope that wont happen to us :o

I heard that sex can be much better without the conception possibility stress, more spontaneous etc :) It'd be a load off my mind, my body always seems to want to find a way, grrrr!!! Im not keen to have any hormones in my body I dont need too.

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I heard that sex can be much better without the conception possibility stress, more spontaneous etc :) It'd be a load off my mind, my body always seems to want to find a way, grrrr!!! Im not keen to have any hormones in my body I dont need too.

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I think so. I know before DH got it done, that sometimes he was a bit reluctant. It is so great not mucking about pills ;)

My hubby has just had it done too and while we're not exactly "going at it like rabbits" (the phrase my OB/his Dr used when giving the all clear after the follow up speciment), it is a HUGE relief to know that no matter what, we're in the clear. We seem to have beaten all the odds with pregnancy too, so its a big weight off my mind. I got really messed around being on the pill so its great not having to bother when them (or anything else) now

With regards to the follow up specimen, it shouldn't make any difference whether the specimen is live or dead so being in a remote area shouldn't matter. They shouldn't see ANY sperm, live or dead. If there are any then the procedure hasn't worked.

My hubby had his on the Friday and was back at work on Monday. He was very bruised and it was obviously pretty tender because he actually missed golf that weekend, but not enough that he took any painkillers.

I should get Andrew to read this thread, as I sit here with a dead arm after another dose of depo this morning. He absolutely refuses to get it done :( and I don't really know why.

Many men have the misconception that it will make them less of a man (I guess the whole dog/cat getting desexed and then going soft makes them think they will too), or less sex drive, sex problems etc - all of which are untrue. Testosterone doesn't rely on that tube being connected in order to produce more, so it wont make his testosterone drop (well shouldn't).

The main con here would be getting DH to go and do it. He isn't a big needle fan, even less so when the needles are pointed at his man bits. He agrees he should, but 3 years on and it hasn't happened.

I sometimes think of DD2 as a failed vasectomy - 'cos DH failed to get one!

LOL!!!!

I can guarantee that there is no reduction in the man's desire to go at it like a rabbit after a vasectomy, much to my disappointment :lol:

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I should get Andrew to read this thread, as I sit here with a dead arm after another dose of depo this morning. He absolutely refuses to get it done :( and I don't really know why.

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He needs some peer pressure from someone he knows that had it done. That's what ended up helping DH to overcome the fear of it. One of his mates said it was a piece of pi ss and that got him thinking about it. DD coming along was the final nudge he needed to make it happen though ;)