Each year in the United States, more than half a million men take family planning into their own hands and have a vasectomy — and this number is on the rise.
If you’re considering a vasectomy and you want to learn whether you’re a good candidate, you’ve come to the right place. At our men's health practice, Dr. Robert J. Cornell and the team routinely perform vasectomies, including no-scalpel procedures, right here in our office.
So, read on if you’re considering this effective approach to birth control.
Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s review how we perform a vasectomy. Sperm is produced in the testicle and then stored in a coiled tube called the epididymis. When you ejaculate, the sperm travels from the epididymis through an ejaculatory duct called the vas deferens.
A vasectomy targets your vas deferens ducts — we block these tubes, preventing sperm from joining your semen.
Now let’s get into some of the pros and cons of a vasectomy, and there are far more of the former than the latter.
Some of the advantages of a vasectomy include:
The first thing you want when considering birth control is to know it works, and a vasectomy certainly does with a near-perfect protection rate.
A traditional vasectomy is a minor procedure that most urologists and men’s health specialists perform in less than 30 minutes in the office. We increase the ease of this procedure with our no-scalpel vasectomy which uses only two small punctures to access and clip off your vas deferens tubes.
Not only can most men go home the same day as their vasectomy, but there’s little downtime. You might feel some soreness, and we recommend taking it easy for a day or two, but most recoveries are fairly quick.
When it comes to the cons of a vasectomy, the biggest one is that your protection against impregnating a woman isn’t in place right away. We test for sperm over the following 3 months after your procedure and give you the all clear when there’s no more left. In the meantime, you have to double down with extra protection.
Speaking of protection, while a vasectomy works extremely well for preventing pregnancy, it doesn’t protect you against sexually transmitted infections — only condoms and abstinence can accomplish that.
Lastly, a vasectomy is tricky to reverse. We can do it, but the procedure is far more involved. So, you should be sure that this is the family planning route you want to take.
Our goal here is to paint the entire picture when it comes to the vasectomy so you can make a decision that’s right for you and your circumstances. A vasectomy is a very personal decision that only you (and your partner) can make.
For our part, we’re happy to consult with you to make sure there aren’t any hurdles, health-wise or other. To sit down with us to discuss a vasectomy, contact our office in Houston, Texas, to schedule an appointment.
