You’re at a place in life where future fatherhood isn’t the goal, and you’re contemplating cementing that decision with a vasectomy. Each year in the United States, about half a million men take this same step with great success.
Here at Arizona Urology, our highly skilled and experienced team of men’s health experts offers the most up-to-date vasectomy services, including the no-scalpel vasectomy.
To help you make the best choice for your circumstances, we present five of the most common reasons men come to us for a vasectomy.
Your overriding goal is to prevent impregnating a woman, and a vasectomy is one of the best ways to do that. A vasectomy offers a near-perfect 99.99% efficacy rating, making it the most effective birth control method for men outside of abstinence.
The burden of birth control has often fallen to women, but more men are taking matters into their own hands to prevent unplanned pregnancies.
As well, if you have a partner who isn’t tolerating birth control well, such as unwanted side effects from hormonal birth control options, a vasectomy is a great option.
A vasectomy simply blocks the ducts that deliver sperm into your semen. Neither your libido nor your ability to ejaculate is affected by a vasectomy.
We perform vasectomies in our office, and it only takes minutes. Making the procedure even better, we offer no-scalpel vasectomies. Instead of making a small incision to access and clip your vas deferens tubes (the tubes that deliver sperm from your testicles), we only need to make a small puncture point.
We then pull the tubes through the tiny hole, clip them off, and replace them inside your scrotum again.
After your quick-and-easy vasectomy, you’re free to return home. We ask that you take it easy for a couple of days, and if you experience any soreness, you can take over-the-counter medications and place an ice pack on your scrotum. A great hack for the ice pack is to use a bag of frozen peas.
The tiny puncture site should heal very quickly, and you’ll be back to your normal routine within a few days, though you should avoid strenuous activities for at least a week.
When it comes to resuming sexual activity, you can engage in sexual intercourse about a week after your vasectomy. It’s important to understand that your pregnancy protection is not in place at this time as there may still be some active sperm in your ejaculate. During this period, you should have another birth control in place.
In most cases, we check for sperm at about the 10- to 12-week mark or after 30 ejaculations. If we don’t find any sperm, you’re protected against impregnating a woman moving forward. If we do find sperm, we’ll take another sample in 2-4 weeks, and you should continue your backup birth control until we give you the go-ahead.
To learn more about a vasectomy or to schedule a consultation, please contact one of our locations in Goodyear, Gilbert, or Glendale, Arizona.
