About a week after the US Supreme Court decision to strike down the abortion law was leaked [Roe vs Wade] leaked in May, the average daily online search for the word “vasectomy” has nearly doubled, according to Innerbody Research, which provides evidence-based guidance for purchasing home health products and services.
They also found that searches for “How much does a vasectomy cost?” and “Are vasectomies reversible?” grew by about 250%.
Vasectomies, which involve cutting and fusing the tubes that carry sperm from the testes to the urethra, have only a 0.15% failure rate when it comes to preventing pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . This makes them a highly effective method of birth control.
“If both partners think they don’t want more children, then a vasectomy is the easiest form of permanent birth control,” said Sheldon Marks, an assistant clinical professor of urology at the University of Arizona School of Medicine in Tucson, who performs surgery. of reversal. “But couples change their minds.”
About 3% to 6% of the 300,000 vasectomy patients each year will want to have the procedure reversed, research suggests.
“Sometimes a partner determined not to have children changes their position,” Marks said. Or the couple is in a different financial situation and can now afford another child. He also performs reversals for people who are in new marriages or relationships and want to have children with their new partners.
And vasectomies are usually reversible. In a 2021 analysis published in the journal SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine, researchers reviewed 25 studies of vasectomy reversals among just over 8,300 patients.
The authors found that of the 2,933 men who had the reversal done microscopically (using a powerful operating microscope), about 91% had their fertility restored. Among the 671 men who had it macroscopically (with the naked eye or with a small magnifying glass), about 81% had their fertility restored.
The researchers also calculated that of nearly 3,000 women included in studies of microscopic reversals, about 73% became pregnant later. Of the 535 women included in studies of macroscopic procedures, about 48% became pregnant.
In addition to the skill of the surgeon and the type of surgery, the characteristics of each partner come into play when it comes to pregnancy success, said Mary Samplaski, a urologist at Keck Medicine at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles.
She led a study published in 2020 in the journal Urology that sought to determine whether a man’s age made a difference to pregnancy outcomes.
The team analyzed 3,130 vasectomy reversals — all performed by the same surgeon — and found that having a partner under the age of 35, plus having the procedure done within ten years of the vasectomy, increased the chances of a successful pregnancy. If the male partner was a smoker, rates were lower.
When it comes to the age of the sperm provider, “most of the data shows that the results are quite similar,” Samplaski said. The age of the partner was also important to consider, she said, as egg quality usually begins to decline most rapidly between the ages of 35 and 40. If the woman is older, “it might not make sense to do a reversal,” she added.
Vasectomy reversals can be expensive, usually between $5,000 and $15,000, and often include other fees, according to the Urology Care Foundation. They are rarely covered by medical insurance. It might make more financial sense for a couple to have sperm harvested and used via in vitro fertilization, Samplaski said.
If you’re sure you don’t want to have any more children, but you’re afraid you’re going to have a vasectomy, or worried you might regret the decision, preserving sperm in a sperm bank before the procedure is another option, Marks said.
It is non-invasive “and will cost a fraction of what a reversal will cost later,” he said. “I encourage men to do that, but if they don’t want to, they can have a vasectomy and know that later in life there will be doctors who can do a reversal and give them a very high chance of success.”
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
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