Kip’s experience: So far no regrets

I had my vasectomy done in December 1998. I have been married for almost 16 years, have one son, age 13. After years of my wife taking birth control pills, we both decided that I would have a vasectomy. Let me say right upfront, I was not pressured into having it done. It was something that I decided on and have no regrets about it.

Like other guys, my experience is very much the same. I went to my urologist a couple of weeks before the actual procedure to have the pre-exam. He checked out all my equipment and said that everything looked normal. (Whatever that means!) Anyway, he described the procedure and told me that I would have to shave the night before. Gave me the authorization to take home and read along with a brochure with detailed descriptions, answers to questions, and how to take care of myself afterward. I was really surprised that there were no newsgroups or a webpage like this one on the subject of vasectomy. If I can give one piece of advice for you to follow it’s (ICE) use plenty of it for the first couple of days. It keeps the swelling down and will make your recovery much faster.

The vasectomy

The day arrived for the procedure. The night before I had shaved my scrotum and just below my penis. That was kind of awkward, but not that bad. My procedure was scheduled for Friday and I also took Monday off as well. I was supposed to call an hour before to make sure that the Doctor was on schedule. Well, as fate would have it he wasn’t. He was running about an hour late. So the nurse told me to wait at home and to take the valium he had given me before coming in. I did and went promptly asleep. My wife had to wake me up when it was time to go. When we arrived at the office, I was taken straight back and was told to undress from the waist down. I did and in just a few minutes the doctor and nurse came in. He told me to lay down and they draped a sterile sheet over me with a hole in the middle of it. My testicles were pulled up through it. The doctor cleaned all around my testicles and penis with betadine. The only real pain was the numbing. And that wasn’t very bad. Kind of like a bee sting. I could see a little of what they were doing. He did the left side first. Then proceeded to the right. There really wasn’t any pain, just a lot of major league tugging. Just before he cut the vas on the right he said, “Last chance to change your mind”. I said no, and SNIP…. I was sterile. He stitched me up and was all finished. The whole thing took about 30 minutes. He packed each side with gauze, helped me get my jock strap on and we were done.

After the procedure

I went home and spent the rest of the weekend in bed with ice between my legs. I must admit that after the numbing wore off, the first couple of days I was really sore and swelled quite a bit. It really took me a few weeks to get over the soreness. If your doctor offers to give you pain medicine, take him up on it. You may not need it, but better to be safe than sorry. I was glad I had it for the first couple of days. I have heard of guys having sex or jacking off the same day or shortly after. Well, not me… I was hurting too bad for that for a few days.

After a month and 15 ejaculations, I was supposed to take in a semen sample to be tested. That is another story in itself. Then two weeks later, another sample. Both were sperm free and I was pronounced “a free man”!

Anyway, that was five months ago, and so far no regrets!

Submitted by Kip