Is your family complete? Do you love watching college basketball? If you have been considering a vasectomy as a permanent birth control option, you might wonder why March has become the most popular month for this procedure.
The reason is simple, what better way to recover for a few days after your outpatient procedure, than laying on the sofa watching your bracket get busted?
But on the serious side of this conversation, vasectomies have been shown to be 99 percent effective as a permanent birth control option. In addition to the conventional vasectomy, there is now the no-scalpel minimally invasive vasectomy that minimizes pain and bleeding – allowing for a quicker recovery period with just a few days’ rest.
Washington University urologist, Dane Johnson, MD , explains, “The vas deferens are the two tubes that carry sperm from the testicles to the semen during intercourse. A vasectomy is simply the disconnection of the vas deferens. With the no-scalpel procedure, one or two very small punctures are made in the scrotal skin, the vas deferens are exposed in this opening and cut. Both ends are sealed with clamps or ties. Done under local anesthesia, the entire outpatient procedure takes about 30 minutes.”
After a vasectomy, a man’s sexual health and testosterone level is unchanged. He is still able to ejaculate, but the semen doesn’t contain sperm.
Dr. Johnson says, “You may return to sexual activity in about a week after the procedure, but will still need to use birth control, because some sperm may stay in the vas deferens for a while longer. At your three-month post-procedure visit, we will test for sperm. Once given the all clear, no other form of birth control is needed.”
If you have made the decision that a vasectomy is right for you and your family, any time of the year can be the right time for you.
For more information about vasectomies or to make a consultation appointment with Dr. Johnson or any of his colleagues, please call 314-362-8200.
Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital
Medical Building One, Suite 122
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
4444 Forest Park Avenue Building
Suite 3100
St. Louis, MO 63108