Instructions Before Your Vasectomy at Gentle Procedures Toronto

If there is a possibility that you might want additional children in the future, you should not have a vasectomy. Your vasectomy will prevent you from conceiving a child and should be considered a permanent form of male birth control.

Vasectomy reversal surgery is not a fully effective way to restore male fertility, and no one should use surgery to temporarily suppress fertility. A vasectomy reversal may be possible but the results are not certain. A vasectomy is recommended only for men who are certain they will not want to conceive a baby.

If you are certain you don’t want more children, the remaining questions are related to your current physical condition, and there are not many contra-indications for a vasectomy procedure.

The main ones are to do with any pre-existing issues affecting your scrotum (hernia in that area, scarring) and your general ability to tolerate a minor surgery (abnormal blood coagulation, other pre-existing conditions). Morbidly obese men or patients with a short scrotum are not good candidates for vasectomy.

It is also vital that you follow the doctor’s instructions on post-operative care.

• Age – Are you young and have no children?
• Personal Stress – Do you think you might be making a hasty decision at a stressful time?
• External Pressure – Do you feel pressured into the decision by someone or by circumstances?
• Relationship Stability – Do you frequently question the stability of your relationship?

Permanent contraception will not likely help you resolve problems you experience in any of these areas. If you have decided that no matter what the future brings you will not want any more children, then vasectomy is a reasonable consideration for you.

• You don’t want to father a child under any circumstances.
• You want to enjoy sex without worrying about pregnancy.
• You want to save your partner from the surgery involved in having her tubes closed, which carries a higher risk and failure rate.

If this is true in your case, then a vasectomy may be right for you.

Talk to your partner- it’s a good idea to make this decision together. Consider other kinds of birth control. Talk to a friend or relative who has had a vasectomy. Think about how you would feel if your partner had an unplanned pregnancy. Talk to a doctor, nurse or family planning counselor.

You are very young, your current relationship is not stable, you are having the vasectomy just to please your partner, you are under a lot of stress, or you are counting on being able to reverse the procedure later.

Vasectomy reversal is a more complicated operation than the original vasectomy procedure. Reversal success rates are up to 70% and vary based on how long it has been since the original surgery. Gentle Procedures Toronto does not offer vasectomy reversals.

Yes, but reversal operations are expensive and not always successful. If you are thinking about reversal, perhaps vasectomy is not right for you. We definitely recommend that you consider vasectomy a permanent form of contraception when making your decision.

Pre-vasectomy Sperm Banking (cryopreservation) is a good idea in almost anyone considering a vasectomy.

You will want to be certain that you are content with the number of children you have. If you have a child under six months of age, you might want to wait because of the “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)”, a condition where a child can die after a few months of life for no apparent reason. Six months of age is often considered the threshold at which SIDS is least likely to occur. Although SIDS is not common (1 in 2000 infants), this might possibly affect the timing of your plans for vasectomy.

Choosing to have a vasectomy is a serious decision because it is carried out with the intention of creating permanent sterility. Our experience with patients over the years has shown that some men who opt for a vasectomy later change their minds about their desire to have children.

The decision on whether to store sperm as a way to potentially conceive a child in the future is an important one. Conception using stored sperm is not certain, and the necessary medical insemination process can be costly. Cryogenic sperm storage is a good insurance policy, but is not a fully reliable method. If you are concerned to ensure future ability to conceive a child, then the vasectomy itself should be reconsidered.

In the unlikely event that you will want to have kids again in the future, and vasectomy reversal is not an option, or successful, sperm storage may be a way of allowing yourself to procreate again. Please consider storing sperm prior to your vasectomy.