Vasectomy - pros, cons, other :)

[Cally]

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.

[BellyBelly]

Thanks heaps for all your replies, really helps

[Novella]

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

[BellyBelly]

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.

[Jaycee]

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

[Novella]

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

Sorry this is getting off topic.

[Rowellen]

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.

[Nai]

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 DP had to do 50 evictions before retesting for sperm so he had a tally going

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

[Tinks]

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)

[Trillian]

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

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.

[~Raven~]

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)

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

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.

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