Just Get the Vasectomy

This post is inspired by all the women who lament that their husband refuses to get a vasectomy.

Dear Men,

I understand your manhood is important to you. Your testicles are basically an inside organ living on the outside of your body. I know you feel pain for days just thinking about the last time someone kicked you the between the legs.

I realize that culturally speaking, having your vas deferens snipped is one of the worst and most emasculating things you can ask a man to do. But I’m here to tell you, it’s time to get over it. My husband had one, and he will be the first to tell you it sucks. He would also do it again in a heartbeat.

I really do have compassion for men who get the snip-snip, but it is your duty as a partnerscared to get vasectomy in procreation. If you are in a relationship with a woman who bore your children, and the two of you decided you don’t want any more, then it is time for you to step up. Of course, if you have religious objections to permanent birth control, this does not apply to you.

If you are hesitant or outright refusing a vasectomy, I’d like you to consider a few things:

Your wife handled preventing pregnancy until you were both ready. I am willing to bet that most of your wives took birth control before the two of you were ready to have children. Considering birth control is the number one contraceptive, it is likely that your wife took a hormone-laden pill every single day (possibly for years on end) in an effort to avoid pregnancy. You probably didn’t have to wear a condom very often, and no one asked you to take medication that temporarily killed your sperm.

You had a say in how many children you have. I imagine you both took part in a conversation about how many children you wanted, and came to an agreement, together. I recognize people get pregnant unintentionally, but if you are reading this blog, you more than likely had a procreation plan and for the most part, stuck to it.

You were an active participant in the planning and making of the child. Only, once you, ahem, finish making the child, your role becomes passive. You have an important role, and I am not trying to negate how valuable your support is, but after conception, your body does no more work as far as growing the child goes.

Once pregnant, your partner begins using her body to give life to another human. She shares space, blood, and nutrients in order for your child to grow and develop. She may face morning sickness, exhaustion, heartburn, and a host of other common pregnancy side-effects. After nine months of weight gain, hormone fluctuation and the ever increasing need to pee, it is time for her to give birth. Your wife/partner then either pushes a human being out of her vagina or has major abdominal surgery to deliver your baby. You know what she went through because you were there, playing an important support role. But you didn’t physically go through childbirth. You have no idea what it feels like. And you will never have to know.

I don’t know how hard a vasectomy might be on you physically or mentally. But frankly speaking, I don’t have to know how hard it is to know it is easier than giving birth.

Think of a vasectomy as your contribution to family planning.

After all, until this point, your wife took the brunt of everything related to family planning. There is no way around this uncomfortable truth. Pregnancy and childbirth are hard on women. Rewarding and beautiful, yes. But it is hard on your body to grow, then deliver a human being.

Your wife might not have the heart to tell you this, but if you refuse to get a vasectomy, you are being selfish. I know that’s hard to hear. I know you’re thinking of all the reasons you aren’t selfish. You might be running a list of all the good things you’ve done and what a great father you are. I’m sure all of that is true. But your good works do not negate your selfishness in this area.

Women grow and deliver babies. Men can get vasectomies.

The alternative? Well, if you leave permanent birth control up to your wife, you can’t blame her if she chooses the most effective form – abstinence.

I have no doubt a vasectomy is a painful operation. Are you saying you can’t do hard things? Are you saying that while your wife can endure pregnancy, delivery, and maybe even breast-feeding, you can’t go for a 30-minute procedure?

Stop making excuses. Stop being selfish. Just get the vasectomy. 

Signed,
Women who have done their part

 

Myndee
Myndee is a 35ish year old New Orleans area native. She's an author, speaker and self-love advocate. As an introverted extrovert, Myndee loves being part of the generation where most of her friends live in her computer. She and her husband, Luis, live just outside the city with their three kids.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you for your article!

    Couples who are considering vasectomy should realize that although it is a minor surgery, groin surgeries like vasectomy (or hernia repair for that matter) do have some risk of chronic pain. Make sure to take your doctor’s recovery instructions seriously and lay around with a bag of frozen peas for 3 days. Don’t try to be a macho man! Vasectomy causes permanent mild scrotal pain for about 2% of men, and believe me, you don’t want to be one of those guys! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-vasectomy_pain_syndrome

  2. A man needs to feel that he is truly done having kids in ALL life circumstances before he should consent to this. As in if he is divorced would he want kids if his wife divorced him and poisoned the minds of his own children against him. As in if he was bereft. Then and only then should he do it.

    A man lives with the aftermath of this operation. His partner benefits in many ways. He bears all the cost and the loss of opportunity should life circumstances change.

    If he should be a victim of PVPS he will likely be angry. Possibly with his spouse for her inability to tolerate and use something else when she is the one with decent options. You should both think about how you will handle things if he is unlucky. While he may not want you to live in guilt, how will his woman be his support system if the operation does have some nasty complications?

    It is more than fair to set aside the money for the reversal. First, should his partner leave him, she should have no remaining say in his reproductive choice. Second, he may need the money to have future surgery to treat PVPS. He need not go this direction if it ruins his life.

    But, yes, with those caveats it may be worth it. He will, however, have every right to get himself something he can enjoy because he will have the time and money he otherwise wouldn’t if he got his partner pregnant again.

    And at the end of the day, he’s got three options:

    1. Vasectomy
    2. Condoms
    3. Abstinence

    The first sucks because it is permanent. The second sucks because it is unreliable in the long term. The third just sucks for married couples.

    However, should a man find himself single again, it is wise to have one because women should never be trusted to tell the truth about their fertility status.

    Don’t be surprised if your man is angry over this. He has every right to be when he is told to solve the problem and has no decent tools to use to solve it.

    Our society needed Vasalgel as of yesterday.

  3. As per vasectomy specialist in Atlanta, you should read all the consequences which fall under it and also they need to know what are the health issues after it as after doing vasectomy there are some problems which comes under this as chronic pain is one of the most common of them which may fall under it. Visit us @ https://vasectomyclinicatlanta.com/

  4. Do the men commenting on the health risks of a vasectomy not realize the health risks women are put in while pregnant or giving birth or having a c-section? Women die in child birth.

    I guess women need to consider all those risks before ever having children again.

    • Before my wife and I married, we agreed we both wanted children, and she was clear that she would NOT want to adopt = She agreed to bear children. I never agreed to vasectomy and resent the hiprocracy of women who claim ownership of their own bodies and at the same time suggest men are actually ‘obligated’ to do something to their own body that is in fact NOT perfectly reversible and can result in multiple significant negative physiological side effects. Short-sighted hypocracy.

  5. My urologist told me that my wife would love me for having a vasectomy.
    Like a fool, took his advice.
    I told my wife about it after the procedure was done and she freaked out and said that I should have consulted her first. That was the end of any intimacy between us and 4 years later she divorced me. I also have suffered from epididymitis for many years since the procedure. I had absolutely no medical problems before the vasectomy. The urologist was obviously just out to make money.

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