Amanda Gardner, HealthDay Reporter forMSN.COM says
FRIDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) — Doctors around the United States are reporting a sharp increase in the number of vasectomies performed since the economy soured last year, with one noting that many of his clients are from the beleaguered financial industry.
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“Nobody came in and said they were having a vasectomy because the [stock] market crashed,” Goldstein added. “Most are saying, ‘We’ve been thinking about it for a long time,’ and [the crash] influenced their decision. They’re saying with the cost of private school for three kids, they can’t afford to have another one.”
Dr. Harry Fisch, a professor of clinical urology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City, said: “The issue about kids is often a financial one, and, if finances are low, it makes sense that people would be less likely to have more kids. And if they’re thinking about it, this is the time.”
It’s also worth considering that the lifetime cost of a vasectomy is substantially lower, not to mention enormously lower risk to the man, than any comparable form of contraception available for women.
The drawback, obviously, is that vasectomies are generally** irreversible and therefore inappropriate for men who aren’t ready to give up on future reproduction: a vasectomy is not fertility control, it’s fertility termination.
And yet…
And yet…
An awful lot of men get them, making them, incidentally, one of the more popular forms of contraception in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world. How common? Well, as the author of this article at Vasectomy-Information.com
The uptake rate of vasectomy is not entirely straightforward, owing to the way statistics are calculated in the USA. For years, vasectomy figures have been calculated from data about the birth control methods women rely on – not a straightforward count of the number of procedures. It’s currently guestimated based on this method of calculation that annually 500,000 men in the USA undergo the procedure, and about 12% of the male population between 18 and 65 years of age have had a vasectomy. In other countries the rate is higher, with New Zealand topping the table at 20% plus of men in that age group being vasectomized. Personally, I feel that if the same method of calculation (a straightforward count of procedures performed annually) was used, the figures in the USA would be higher.
I’ve mentioned several times lately that intense, and I think intensely conservative cultural biases frame contraception entirely as a women’s issue. I think the tendency to track vasectomy entirely in terms of “methods women are protected by” rather than “men who’ve had them” is a symptom of that bias.
12-20% of adult men is a lot of men! Furthermore, 12-20% of adult men is a lot of men not to be exactly sure about… not even to bother tracking separately! (Note: While I was Googling around… and I had to Google a while to find this article… most sources simply lumped vasectomies and tubal ligations together under “women protected by sterilization. The Guttmacher Institute does a better-than-average breakout.)
And yet…
And yet…
We still hear, over and over, there’s no market for male contraception because men are neither interested in or responsible enough to use contraception.
Even though, estimating conservatively, sooner or later at least 10% of men are interested enough, and responsible enough, to choose a form of contraception that involves getting their testicles cut open, usually in front of their eyes to have it done permanently.***
And considering that an economic downturn is enough to nearly double the rated suggests maybe men are subject to, you know, rational decision-making when it comes to contraception.
Gee, I wonder how many more men would choose a method that was less permanent and less surgical? A moot question at this point, I know, since there are still only two methods available for men. (The more recently introduced of the two methods for men, vasectomies were first mentioned in medical literature in 1830. 179 years seems like a very long time to have to wait for a third!)
[** I had mine reversed, and I’m glad I did, but it wasn’t… exactly… effortless. —fl]
[*** Some of us are interested enough, and responsible enough, to have done it twice! (10 days after our final planned, wanted child was born I had an appointment to have my vasectomy reversal reversed.) —fl]
Submitted by 2790 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-03-23 14:15.
I'm 34, and vasectomy is the birth control method of choice for couples I know who are done having kids or don't want to have kids. At one point I'd been to more vasectomy celebrations than baby showers.
It's just stunning that the actual rate isn't well tracked, really. Are there numbers from someplace with a national health service?
Submitted by 2790 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-03-23 15:03.
Hmmmm ... I think I'm married to one of the men who give birth control a bad name. I was put in a position where I was "forced" to make a choice between having a tubal or abstaining from sex. Husband refused to consider a vasectomy and told me abstinence would be our birth control method should I chose to not have a tubal.
I know there are good guys out there who are more than responsible for birth control, but it's the stories like mine that seem to speak so loud.
Submitted by 2790 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-03-23 15:19.
I too find it interesting that vasectomies are lumped in with tubal ligations and only the number of women 'protected' by this method are counted.
What about the men who are not in relationships that have vasectomies? Why don't they count? Shouldn't we celebrate everyone, male or female, who chooses to take responsibility for their reproductive lives?
Submitted by 2790 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-03-23 15:37.
interesting post. very thoughful. i wouldn't say that men are irresponsible where contracptives are concerned, at least with condoms. if they want it, they will have it.
on a relationship side, it's a choice some people make for various reasons. i had my second child at age 32. my husband and I had decided before the birth that we would be splitting. my first birth was 2 days labour followed by a c-section. second time was planned c-section AND i had my "tubes tied". incidentally, they actually cut them now. they showed me after they did it. amazing. so very permanent. while with my recent ex bf (for a couple of years) i often thought about the "what ifs..." but i made the decision for myself. no one influenced it. i think it should be a personal choice. difficult to have it pushed on you I think. whew! talking alot today. :)
Submitted by 2790 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-03-23 17:07.
So here is a question for you, since I know you're both sensible and an informed advocate. My father should have a vasectomy, since he hates using condoms and isn't monogamous. He recently (at the age of 62) had an unplanned child from an affair, and says he doesn't want any more.
However, he is very resistant to the idea, and claims that there are all sorts of horrible side effects. Do you have any suggestions for how to convince him that this a viable, healthy, not risky option that won't destroy his virility?
[Hi PS. First of all he's welcome to email me. Or you could just tell him that I had not just one but two vasectomies *plus* a (seriously major, six-hour-surgery) reversal in between and... well, two things. First, neither I nor any partner have ever noticed any difference in performance, erections, libido, or ejaculations. Except for, two, the *decided* extra enjoyment that comes from never having to worry about unplanned, unwanted pregnancy. STDs, sure, and if you're going to be sexual you have to be aware of, and, um, prophylactic about it too. But that dread uncertainty about pregnancy that even the longest-term still-fertile monogamous couples have? Gone. The best thing he could do in practical terms (instead of email me, though again he's welcome to) is to talk to men he knows and see what they thing. Chances are roughly one in ten men he knows, and possibly more than one in ten men his age, will be able to tell him whether... or more likely just how much... they and their partners have appreciated theirs. Good luck. --fl]