Tough Times are Good for Vasectomies

When the going gets tough, the tough gets ... snipped? It may be economic doom and gloom for you and me, but not for doctors performing vasectomies: they see a little boom in business!

They looked at their statistics and realized the uptick started around November as the economic crisis deepened. October went down in the history books as one of Wall Street's worst months.

Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman's fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy.

"It's unlikely that some guy read the Dow Jones numbers that day and said, 'Why don't we have a vasectomy?' " Jones said. "More likely, people have already been considering it and typically a guy and his wife have spoken a year or two about this."

Jones was told by patients that they were getting vasectomies because they were losing their jobs and health insurance, or concerned about being out of work soon.

"They realize they don't have the financial security long-term with what's going on," Jones said. "Several of them have mentioned, 'We can't afford to have any more children in this economy.' My perception is that it's more of the concept of raising children in an uncertain economic future."

Madison Park of CNN has the rest of the story: Link - Thanks Tiff!


I had mine at 24 after careful consideration of whether or not making a mini-me was as important as financial security. It's a matter of weighing your options, and these days the scales are heavy on one side. Those who have their one or two kids are right to invest in the Snip.
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I did it after my second child. It didn't hurt, and I've never regretted it. I spent so much time with my kids, I don't know how I could have time for another one.
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Too bad for every thoughtful man that has a vasectomy there's 15 other morons spreading their genes to innumerable idiot women and spawning an army of little morons to continue the cycle.
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Too bad for every thoughtful man that has a vasectomy there’s 15 other morons spreading their genes to innumerable idiot women and spawning an army of little morons to continue the cycle.

As the movie Idiocracy suggested, I and others have contributed to what is a downward spiral, rather than a cycle.
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Is it me, or are vasectomies far easier for men than having tubes tied is for a woman... yet, I think I only know one person, not including Johnny Cat because I don't know him in person, who has had a vasectomy. Either way, I applaud any man that does it, whatever his reasons.
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Johnny Cat:

Exactly, which is why I wonder, considering that a vasectomy can be reversed, why it isn't as common as tubal ligation. Weird, and I am not convinced that it's a "man thing."
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Yup. We're realizing our future will go nowhere if we continue to procreate (only two kids--they are wonderful,but they are enough). Greg had his own "v-day" a few months ago and I am just thankful we are done. The more would not be the merrier in our case--especially since my my husband just got a preliminary layoff notice last week from his school district.
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I've considered it. Having read into it, there's a chance of life-long pain, and that made me second guess my dream. I also understand there's a new procedure developed in India that is showing promise, but has yet to be approved for use in the states. Its more of a clogging than a snipping. They fill you with a soft polymer that completely stops anything getting through there. Once you want to have kids, they give you an injection that dissolves the polymer, and you're ready to go. Maybe when that comes along, I'll get it done.
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I had mine done when our second was three months old. Vaguely unconfortable for a few days, and I could sort of tell something had been done for perhaps two weeks after, but not uncomfortable, just aware of it.

Two things I would change were I to do it again...

Firstly, the vasectomist had a very attractive female assistant - not ideal when you're lying naked from the waist down on a cold slab.
Secondly, because of the tiny dose of Valium as a muscle relaxant (think sawing through a walnut versus slitting a purse) the wife drove me home. For some reason she though I'd be in a hurry - the scariest drive of my life - and I used to be a driving instructor.
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Had mine done after my 3rd son. Local anesthetic was horribly painful, as five shots to the sack would most likely be. $20 copay, in and out, drove myself home.

A year later my wife cheated on me, got divorced, now remarried. Reversal is $7000, out of pocket, no insurance covers it, and no guarantees the reversal will work.

Yeah...think it over hardily before getting it done. Or spring to have some of your soldiers frozen before getting it done.
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Well, they told me not to do it if there were any doubt whatsoever that I might ever want another child.

My friend's dad was getting a reversal and got an infection and died.

I think there may be another way to have another child. I think they can go into you with a needle and extract sperm and artificially inseminate with it, but that's probably very expensive too.
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The comment about getting some swimmers frozen is a good point. I know one person who got a reversal, and he tells EVERYONE to freeze some before getting a vasectomy. For him, the reversal was much worse, it was very expensive, and in the end, it didn't work. Divorce, death -- you do not know the future.
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I got sterilized at twenty-three. Best thing *EVER*! I really don't understand why more women don't get tubals? I've never regretted mine and it's never given me a bit of trouble.

"Zero babies!"
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