Vasectomy

What Is A Vasectomy?

A vasectomy is a surgical procedure to cut the sperm carrying tubes in men, called vas deferens, and in so doing providing permanent contraception.

Vasectomy, DOES NOT prevent sexually transmissible diseases (STDs).

WHAT DOES A VASECTOMY INVOLVE?

Dr Vasudevan performs a vasectomy as a day procedure under a general anesthetic in a hospital. You will be asked to fast for 6 hours before the surgery. Once you come to the hospital you will be admitted by the nursing staff. Once admitted you will be taken to the operating room when it is your turn to be operated on.

The anesthetist will give you the medications to make you to go to sleep completely. Once you are asleep the surgery will commence.

The vas deferens tube, one on either side, is located in the scrotum. Following this 2 small incisions are made on the skin. The vas deferens is delivered out of the incision. A segment of the vas deferens is cut. The two ends of the vas deferens is tied and the ends of the vas deferens is sealed to prevent sperm coming out of the tubes. Any adjacent blood vessels are sealed to prevent any bleeding. Once this has been completed the cut ends of the vas deferens are placed back in the scrotum and the skin is closed with dissolving stiches. Local anesthetic is infiltrated around the skin incisions to provide temporary pain relief.

The operation takes approximately 20 minutes.

Once the operation is completed, you will be woken up by the anesthetist and sent to the recovery unit, for observation.

Once you have fully recovered and woken up, you will be discharged from hospital on the same day.

As the surgery is done under a general anaesthetic you will not be able to drive home yourself and hence a friend or family member will need to take you back home.

WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS OF A VASECTOMY?

While the majority of vasectomy procedures are free of complications they can include:

Early complications:

  • Bleeding – in the scrotum causing a swollen appearance
  • Bruised appearance to the scrotum
  • Blood in the semen
  • Infection to the skin incision – appears red and swollen, will need antibiotics to resolve this
  • Mild pain or discomfort – simple pain killers such as paracetamol can help relieve this

Late complications:

  • Pain that persists for a prolonged period of time (chronic pain) – may occur in about 1% of men who undergo vasectomy
  • Sperm granuloma – leaking of sperm from the vas deferens causing an inflammatory response around the vas deferens resulting in a small lump.
  • Unexpected pregnancy – which is extremely rare and due to failure of the vasectomy
  • Spermatocele – is a cystic swelling in the epididymis, which is responsible for storage and maturing the sperm
  • Hydrocele – Fluid that accumulates around the testicles and causing a swollen scrotum

RECOVERY AFTER A VASECTOMY

It is normal to have some discomfort in the scrotal area for a week or so after the vasectomy. You can perform your normal daily activities, however it is advisable to limit excessive physical exertion till you start to feel comfortable.

VASECTOMY AND REPEAT SEMEN ANALYSIS

It is important to note that a vasectomy is NOT an immediate form of contraception. There is still a lot of residual sperm that is present in the vas deferens that needs to be flushed out.

It can take approximately 3 months or so for all the sperm to be flushed out. In some cases it can take even longer.

As a result, it is absolutely essential that you continue to use alternative contraception methods till a semen test several months, normally 3 months, after the vasectomy confirms that there are NO sperm in your semen. Once this is has been confirmed you can then have intercourse without your alternative contraception methods.

FOLLOW-UP WITH DR VASUDEVAN

Dr Vasudevan will review you in his office 3 months after the vasectomy procedure. Please make sure that you ring his office to arrange the follow-up appointment.

During this appointment, Dr Vasudevan will review your skin incision and also arrange for the semen analysis. Dr Vasudevan will inform you of the results when they are available. A copy of the results will also be forwarded to your GP.