Richard’s experience: It’s not terrible for everyone! Vasectomy in Thailand

This will be a brief, positive vasectomy read. Living in Huahin, Thailand, and expecting a baby I thought it would be a good idea to have my vasectomy after the baby was born, at 60 (my Thai wife is 25) I didn’t want another child and neither did she. We had weekly visits to Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, a 2 1/2 hour drive from Huahin. I made an appointment with one of the top urologists at the hospital and booked my operation the following Wednesday, planning to be there for our weekly appointment.

My story

Sunday morning we left for the hospital since my wife had some bleeding, and our son was born on Monday afternoon. My appointment was changed to Tuesday afternoon, which was fine with me – I wanted to get it over with! Bumrungrad Hospital is phenomenal, extremely efficient with top doctors trained in the US, Europe, England, and Thailand. Want an appointment with the top doctor in any field? You can probably get one within 2 days.

To continue: I’m escorted into a small operatory room with 2 nurses. They prep me and the doctor comes in cracks a few jokes and then explains what he will do. I didn’t realize he had to cut both testicles. He finished the right one, which wasn’t too bad, a couple of shots that were mildly painful with a few additional after I felt him doing whatever he was doing. Then he said “OK, the right one is finished, now for the left”. The most uncomfortable feeling was the pushing of the testicle up into the skeletal cavity where it sometimes likes to disappear – to great discomfort.

He asks me how I’m doing and I reply…..”I’m ready to leave”, he laughs and says we’re almost finished. 20 minutes later I’m walking out to pick up my medication and pay my bill… a total of $240 or £122. I went back up to my wife’s room, laid down, and spent 2 days recovering in the hospital. Occasional discomfort, some bruising on the scrotum, swelling of the testicles, took a pain pill that night, and no others. It was psychologically an unpleasant experience, but given the outcome worth the discomfort. Hope this helps those who will go through it… it’s not terrible for everyone.

Update – March 1, 2008

And on the 7th day, there was no rest. My testicles are swollen and hanging low, black and blue has become prevalent and encroached on my penis. Surprised because my penis had nothing to do with it. I neglected to tell the doctor to “be gentle” and can only assume when the testicles were being “pushed” into their “hidden” cavity they got bruised and therefore swelled. Today is day 10 they are still black/blue, the swelling has gone down, no discomfort. A good friend had the same operation, no swelling, no black/blue marks… we all respond differently and heal differently.

Submitted by Richard