Guys, if you are thinking about having birth control and you love your wife, do vasectomy.
That’s what I want to say to the guys. I’m not trying to be a female chauvinist here, but honestly, when in comes to birth control methods, having guys to do vasectomy is a lot better compared to females doing ligation. I mean, I already suffer 4 x 9 months of pregnancy and confinement, for a guy doing a minor
Before I go into the details on my husband’s procedure, let’s have some ideas on what is vasectomy and ligation are all about.
Male Vasectomy VS Female Ligation
Both are permanent methods. Female ligation is a surgical procedure where a woman fallopian tubes are closed or blocked. This prevents the eggs from traveling to the uterus and fertilised by sperm. As for the male vasectomy, is a procedure by cutting or blocking off the tubes that carry sperm.
The Surgery.
Female ligation requires to be in general anesthesia, whereas vasectomy can be done on local anesthesia.
Ligation is done by making a cut at on the abdominal, find the tube and close it up. As for vasectomy, the surgeon just need to make a small hole in the scrotum, cut and tie off the vasa deferens and because the hole is so small, it can just heal naturally.
The Risk.
Honestly, given the medication technology nowadays, both procedures are very safe. But because ligation involves general anaesthesia and the cut is much bigger than vasectomy, the recovery period will be longer. After ligation, some woman may experience menopause like symptoms like hot flashes, dry vagina, mood swings, having trouble sleeping, lower sex drives and irregular period. Ligation also has a higher risk of pregnancy that occurs outside the uterus (etopic pregnancy), because of incomplete closure of fallopian tubes.
Cost
The cost of vasectomy is definitely much more affordable compare to ligation. In Singapore, for vasectomy, it can cost from $200 to $3000 and ligation can cost from $1000 to $14000.
My Hubby’s Vasectomy Journey
After Jia He (4th child) is born, I casually discussed with hubby about birth control and asked him to do vasectomy instead of me doing ligation. He said he will consider it and to my surprise he actually went to the Polyclinic to get a referral letter (subsidy route) to do vasectomy.
For private, you just choose an urologist and fix a consultation.
He waited for about a month and got an appointment in NUH.
During the consultation, the doctor asked about the reason for doing and did a basic body check. It’s a very short consultation and the doctor will ask questions about your family and why he wants to do it. He was then told to wait for his surgery date.
His surgery date was arranged just a month later after his consultation!
The Day Of His Surgery
It’s a simple day surgery procedure. The surgery took about 30-45mins and about an hour in the observation room. So in total, I waited about 2hours at the waiting area for him.
The recovery time for the surgery is less than a week. Just need to avoid sports or heavy lifting / work for a week. Sex is okay to proceed after a week. By the way, there may be sperm in the semen even after vasectomy, so continue to use other birth control methods.
Before the post operation appointment, which is 3-4 months later, he needs to do about 12-15 ejaculations to ensure his semen sample is free of sperm. Then he will be fully discharged from his surgery.
Cost
The breakdown of his consultation, surgery and post-op review / test is as below.
I round up the figures to the nearest dollars. Please note that charges are for Singaporean (subsidised) and surgery was done in year 2021.
Polyclinic consultation: $14
NUH 1st consultation: $38
Day Surgery:
Total $1400
Govt Subsidy (including absorbing GST) $800 + $40
Medisave $520
Cash upfront: $40
Verdict
The risk and downtime is really low to minimal, so I don’t see any reasons for the guys not doing it if both of you are considering about birth control or stop having kid(s). It doesn’t affect their sexuality function, or testosterone production. Their erections and climax will still be the same. The only difference is the semen will no longer have any sperm. In fact, it makes our sexual life more enjoyable without worrying about pregnancy.
So discuss with your other half and doctor if you guys are considering it. Feel free to comment below or DM on my social media account if you want to find out more!
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