Men with Vasectomies - Pain?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

My wife and I are not going to have any children after a second child is born, and it has been assumed by both of us, that when that happens, I will have a vasectomy. Neither of us particularly like condoms, and it’s not generally a good idea for a woman to stay on birth control until menopause. Neither her nor I want more than two children.

I’m fine with the sterilization part, and the short term discomfort of the procedure, but one thing I didn’t know about until recently is the chance of Post-Vasectomy Pain Syndrome. If the incidence of that were, say, 0.5%, I’d have no reservations…but looking at the stats, it seems that 2-5% of men experience this, and it sounds horrible.

So, doper men who’ve been snipped - any long term pain? If so, what has your experience been like, and do you seriously regret the procedure?

If you regret having a vasectomy because you later wanted to have children, that’s a different topic, and I for one am not worried about that aspect.

#2

Nah.

For about two years afterward, on rare occasions (meaning, maybe seven times over the course of two years), I would get a sharp pain lasting less than a second in the general region of my nuts. Other than that, nothing.

It’s been almost a decade now and I feel nothing.

#3

It’s not? I’ve never heard this, and I’ve had multiple conversations with my gyno about it. What’s wrong with it?

#4

17+ years after mine - no pain past the 3rd day. In fact, I’ve never heard anything about nay pain from a vasectomy past a week. Has someone told you there was long-term pain?

#5

Long-term pain? No. I don’t even remember any short-term pain. Maybe a day or two of discomfort, but nothing that rose to the level of pain.

#6

I asked MrWhatsit, and he reports “mild discomfort” for the first couple days, and then things were pretty much back to normal. No long-term complications or issues.

#7

Had it done about 10 years ago after my 2nd child turned 1. No long term pain or complications.

#8

There was a nasty dull ache in the boys for maybe a week, but nothing long-term. Granted, this only happened about a year and a half ago.

Funny story, while I was laying on the table with my sliced-open scrotum in my doc’s hands, he tried to keep the conversation flowing to distract me from the discomfort of the whole thing. He asked me what I did for a living. I told him I worked for a union, which then prompted him to expose himself as a Tea Party Republican. He was trying to argue politics and unions with me while he had a very sharp knife pressed up against my balls. I wasn’t biting. I tried switching the conversation to baseball. He said he wasn’t a fan. Oy! So I just let him rant about Obama for 20 minutes while nodding and grimacing.

#9

So he’s a Tea Bagger who was holding a knife to your Tea Bag?

#10

Well, I’m quoting what I’ve heard from my wife, through her doctor (perhaps it’s a combination of risk factors.) Long term pill usage can slightly increase the risk of breast, cervical and liver cancer, while potentially reducing the risk of other cancers, so for many people it’s a wash. I know my wife’s family has a history of breast cancer, so perhaps that’s why…

I just read some things on a few medical websites (webMD, etc) that mention it as a potential complication. Low risk, and lower risk than something like a tubal ligation for my wife, but still not an extremely small percentage, so I thought I’d ask.

Here’s the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-vasectomy_pain_syndrome

#11

No long term pain, no short term pain – as others have said I would describe it as discomfort for a few days, easily controlled by standard pain meds. And the improvement in my sex life made it worthwhile totally. My wife couldn’t take birth control pills, so it was pretty much condoms or nothing for us. Until the vasectomy. Then it was catch as catch can.

#12

:smiley:

#13

I think that might be worse than the surgery.

#14

:eek:
.

#15

I haven’t had ANY problem. I looked post vasectomy pain syndrome on Wiki and was surprised at the numbers of complaints and % of problems.

Then I looked at the references…all but two appear to be before 2000…many are decades old. Some give percentages based only on returned questionaires(:rolleyes:)

Than I looked at the website referenced, which led me to VasectomyPain.org.

Well now I’m getting :dubious:. Doing a websearch on this one doctor who runs the website and is heavily influencing the wikipedia page…shows…not much.

I think it appears Anthony R. Ellis, M.D is really a Psychiatrist and and NOT a specialist in the field.

Ok…I’ll just come out and say it. THIS IS BULLSHIT. Sure there may be occasional problems, but not nearly on the scale this guy would want you to believe and not with modern techniques. I’ll conjecture this guy and others are scare mongers out to make a name for themselves over an overblown issue and probably some fame and fortune on the way. THere’s probably decent money in vasectomy reversal.

I will happily reverse my opinion given a series of nicely done unbiased scientific studies.

#16

I had mine done a little shy of two years ago. I bruised up and stayed tender longer than what I guess is average (I wasn’t all better in less than a weekend like some claim) but after a month at most I was all healed up and haven’t had any complications since.

To clarify: I wasn’t in any real pain for those weeks. More of a “take it easy”, occasional wincing when getting off the couch sort of pain. I was able to live my life just fine but not wrestle or run marathons.

#17

You went to the wrong doctor. When I had mine done, a special assitant stayed with me through the whole process, explaining everything beforehand, even holding my hand and chatting with me during the procedure. Her name was Monique and she was as attractive as her name. I don’t remember a damned thing else that went on during the procedure.

#18

My first response disappeared into the ether. Maybe I’ll have more luck with this one.

No pain for me other than for a couple hours after the anesthetic wore off. I took a Vicodin (which I hated), and when that wore off, just some Advil that night (Friday). Saturday and Sunday I was fine, just took it easy and took care not to bang my nuts into anything. Monday I was back at work and on Tuesday morning I gave my wife the greenlight, and she gently coaxed one out of me. I was a little anxious that I’d get a shooting pain at the moment of orgasm, but no such thing. I had mine 9 years ago and I haven’t regretted it once.

#19

never talk politics to your surgeon or anyone that could spit into your food.

#20

Hmm, I had to wait a week or so before being sent back into the game. I even had to provide 2 samples back to the surgeon’s office to make sure the pipes were clean before being given the green light by the doctor. Yes, I had to put it in a little container, being it back to his office (in a brown paper bag), drop it off at the front counter to the cute nurses there, and he would have it tested to make sure I was shooting blanks. I guess it beats having a stray one reach it’s goal.