EPT(EDIT: This is intended to be a serious discussion. I know it is a very long post, but please only post if you have read the whole thing and have a genuine question or thought on the matter. Thanks!)
For those who don't know:
A vasectomy is where they cut into your scrotum and sever the two tubes (called vas deferens individually, or vasa deferentia together) that carry sperm from the testicles to the ejaculatory system, then often sealing both ends (testicular and upper) of the vasa deferentia via cauterization or clamps. This prevents sperm from getting into your semen, thus making it impossible for you to impregnate a woman. This procedure does not affect hormones or sexual function (you still produce testosterone, and you can still get hard and you still desire sex just as much as before). You also continue to produce semen, but with no sperm present in the semen. You also still continue to produce sperm, but the sperm cannot join with the semen - sperm are simply reabsorbed by the body. The amount of ejaculate (cum) is not noticeably changed.
Vasectomy is the most effective birth control that exists. The failure rate is about 1 in 1500, meaning 1 in 1500 men will experience a spontaneous reversal - the tubes reconnect themselves, allowing sperm to join with the semen again. The pill, by contrast, is about 1 to 3 out of 100, meaning that in a given year of sexual activity, 1 to 3 women will get pregnant out of 100. Condoms are even worse than the pill (higher failure rate).
Now, one more quick thing to mention: while vasectomies are reversible, the chances of reversal success are only about 60 percent. Furthermore, reversal is VERY expensive, and not covered by most insurance. Consider a vasectomy permanent!
Anyway, I had a vasectomy a month and 2 days ago, and today I had my semen tested and came up "all clear" (my semen is free of sperm).
I was with a very wonderful woman for a year, and she had been sterilized many years prior to our relationship. She and I enjoyed wonderful condom-free sex probably hundreds of times. She got me thinking about overpopulation, and encouraged me to get sterilized if we ever broke up. When I finally broke up with her, I began thinking about sterilization seriously.
Overpopulation is one of the biggest reasons behind my choice to undergo a vasectomy. At a population of 6.6 billion, it is my sincere belief that the Earth is already overpopulated, while the population is projected to reach 9 billion within about 40 years. Half of humanity is expected to face water shortages within 20 years. Meanwhile, "resources" are being depleted, forests are disappearing, there are mass extinctions every year, and many people have inadequate nutrition and live in miserable conditions. It is said that America and other wealthy countries have a low birth rate, and that the population growth problem is really only an issue in undeveloped countries, but this is exactly wrong. It is true that America and other wealthy countries have a low birthrate, but it is also these same wealthy countries that place the largest demands on the environment. For an American to have one child is roughly the equivalent of an African having 18 children.
I'm not preaching to anyone here. This is just my understanding of how things are.
My other reasons for pursuing sterilization are more personal:
I don't particularly like little kids. I can enjoy them in small doses, but they are often annoying, to say the least. I used to take it for granted that I'd have kids at some point, but I've come to realize I don't really want any, and I find myself feeling sorry for people I know who are having children. At the same time, I have many friends who are much older than I and childfree that I look up to greatly. Children require intense responsibility, dedication, and energy.
I don't want to be financially responsible for a child. I like being independent. And independence goes well beyond the financial; I like being free to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I want my life to be about my personal development, possibly shared with a lovely partner or partners. I don't want to worry about how my choices are negatively affecting a child.
I don't find America to be a suitable place to raise a child, with it's celebration of violence and unbridled consumerism and other shallow, foolish values.
I don't want to be tied to a woman I grow to despise or merely grow apart from. I'd hate to put a child through a nasty custody battle.
And, if I am to be honest, one of my great reasons for wanting to have a vasectomy is that I simply enjoy condomless sex. When I was with my sterile girlfriend, we had sex whenever and wherever we wanted, and never had to worry about an unwanted pregnancy, and never had to worry about whether we had condoms on hand. Condoms reduce sexual sensations, occasionally cause allergic reactions in men and women, and are a pain to deal with in general. I love spontaneous, care-free condomless sex. So much!!!! And yes, many of you are fans of the pill, but the pill is not as effective as vasectomy, and carries many bad side effects, such as increased risk of cancer, mood alteration, weight gain, and possible loss of sex drive! Plus, women are human, and they forget to take their pills just like anyone else.
So, I finally decided to have a vasectomy.
It took a long time to work up the nerve to have this done to myself, mostly because research led me to the realization that there is a risk of chronic long term pain called post-vasectomy pain syndrome, PVP. Apparently it affects only a very small percentage of men, and most men have no discomfort after the first few weeks. Still, the risk scared me. Now I realize that the risk is probably over-stated by anti-birth control religious zealots. Still, it is a small risk. But I discovered a website called http://www.vasectomy-information.com/ that is full of personal stories from people who have had this done, and while some of the men who have posted there did have complications and chronic pain, most of the men (by far) had little to no problems. And I met a friend who had it done years before, and was fine. So I signed up.
It cost 860 bucks in cash. Insurance will often cover this procedure, but I do not have insurance.
You go visit the doc and have the procedure done in the same day, usually.
Now, I should quickly state that my research led me to believe that "open-ended" vasectomies carry a lower risk of PVP. An open ended vasectomy is where they leave the testicular ends of the vasa deferentia UNSEALED. The upper ends (that feed into the ejaculatory system) are cauterized or clamped (clamped in my case). This allows sperm to travel from the testicles out into the scrotum, rather than building up in sealed tubes and causing backpressure on the testicles. To be clear, most men don't have problems even with a "closed-ended" vasectomy, but my research led me to believe it would be even less risky if I had an open-ended procedure, so that's what I did.
Also, traditionally vasectomies are done with a scalpal. Two incisions are made in the scrotum to access each vas deferens tube. But it is now increasingly common to have a no-scalpal vasectomy (NSV). This is what I had done. The NSV requires no stitches, heals faster, and tends to have fewer complications (swelling, bruising, etc). My vasectomy was an open-ended NSV.
So I went in, talked to the doc. He was surprisingly cool with me having a vasectomy - often young, single, child-free people like myself (I'm 24) are given a hard time, and sometimes doctors will refuse to perform the surgery. In my case, the doc simply told me that there was a much higher chance I would regret my decision due to my age and child-free status, but when I insisted, he agreed.
I got on the table, he soaped me up, then injected me twice in the scrotum with a local anasthetic. This is by far the most painful part of the procedure, and I can tell you that it was only about as bad as being stung by a bee. He then began his work, and I definitely did not watch what he was doing!
5 minutes later, he was done. *5 minutes*!!!! And I am not lying at all when I say I didn't feel a damn thing. Most men do get some discomfort during the procedure, but not me.
No stitches for my wound, just a bandaid!
Now, you definitely want to have an athetic supporter/jock strap for the recovery. You don't want your nuts bouncing around, as it is very uncomfortable. The jock is your friend for the first week to two weeks.
The first day was the most painful. Once the anasthetic wore off, I had a general achey and uncomfortable feeling in my lower belly and balls. I also felt like things were "pulling" around in there. It wasn't unbearable, just very uncomfortable. Really the only reason it is bad is because you KNOW what happened down there - the sensation itself is quite mild. I just sat around on the couch watching movies. I only took 1 ibuprofin for my whole recovery - that's how mild the whole thing was. Many people like ice on day 1 and 2, but I didn't even do that.
After the first day I could move around carefully without much pain, but definitely need the athletic supporter. I had no swelling, but by day 2 I developed some nice bruising on my nutsack, kind of close to my cock.
I should add that on the first day I had a profound wave of regret over my decision, but it lasted only about an hour, and ever since then I've only felt elation and excitement about it. I had given a lot of thought to my decision before I did it, and I believed in it strongly, and still do.
By day 4 I tried masturbating. Very uncomfortable! Felt like my nuts were getting squished! I was worried. But I could still cum and orgasm itself felt very good. Stopped masturbating for a few more days. The puncture hole had closed up on its own by this point.
Without the athletic support, the balls bounce around and it is very uncomfortable, with very short, sharp bursts of pain in the testicles, like being kicked in the nuts, but disappearing instantly (but if you are walking, your balls bounce a lot, and so you keep getting these rapid twinges of pain - not good). Occasional periods of aching in the balls even when sitting still, but mostly pain-free when still.
By about day 10 I was going without the athletic supporter and doing fine. Only occasional twinges of discomfort. Masturbation no longer causes discomfort - things work normally! Feels so great to cum after so many days off (I tend to masturbate daily). No loss of sensation or anything - things are fine!
I'm an avid bicyclist. By day 13 I had to get back on the bike or I would have gone insane. Going over bumps and large cracks in the road caused discomfort, but otherwise I was fine.
By day 15 or 16, bicycling was no problem and I was doing long rides again, and commuting as usual.
At day 32 or so (today), I feel 99.5 percent normal. I exercise very vigorously every day, masturbate daily, and carry on my usual schedule. Occasionally I'll get a very slight ache in my nuts which I didn't get before, but it often goes away within a minute or two, and is no big deal at all. I expect even the occasional aches to go away completely (they are very rare already). I'm eager for my new girlfriend to get back into town so we can have sex for the first time, and do so condom free.
Sterilization is a serious life decision. I thought about it for over a year before I had it done at age 24 (nearly 25). For me it makes sense. I feel soooooooo glad to not have to worry about having children. I don't want any. And even better is not having to worry about an UNEXPECTED pregnancy. I'd rather have the certainty of sterility than the uncertainty of a possible surprise pregnancy. I feel free. My life is mine to live as I wish, with only as much responsibility as I choose for myself.
I think sterilization is a good decision, given the state of the world today. But it is a personal decision. I'm glad I decided the way I did!
I'll close by saying that for those who care about the environment, there is NOTHING you can do that is better for the environment than not having children. Again, I'm not preaching, just telling it as I see it.
I'm happy to discuss this further. My email is in my tag.
Nick / Inky
![[image loading]](http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/shouldnt_have_kids.jpg)
