Vasectomy

A vasectomy is a procedure that prevents a male from being able to impregnate a woman. The process involves disconnecting the vas deferentia, which are what helps sperm move through the male in the moments before he ejaculates. Once these are disconnected it becomes impossible to impregnate a woman. Originally there was only one way to complete a vasectomy, and that is with a scalpel, but with today’s advances in medical practices there are less invasive techniques.

A new development in vasectomy is a vasectomy reversal. The procedure of vasectomy reversal involves restoring a male’s fertility to the state that it was before the vasectomy. To find out more about this procedure, visit our vasectomy reversal page.

Procedure

Typically a vasectomy is conducted by first numbing the part of the body most affected by the vasectomy, the scrotum. Nowadays it is much more common to use general anesthesia as opposed to using local anesthesia on only one small part of the body. Once the patient is asleep, the doctor will make two very small cuts on both sides of the scrotum. Once these small incisions are made, the vas deferentia are then partially extracted and cut. After they are cut, the vas deferentia are placed back inside the male and the skin is sealed back together by cauterizing. In recent years there have been advances in how vasectomies are carried out, the advances help patients heal as quickly and painlessly as possible. Listed below are the newer types of vasectomies and a bit of information on how they are performed.

No-Scalpel

If it is preferred that a scalpel not be used, a no-scalpel vasectomy may be performed. Instead of using a sharp scalpel to make an incision in the male’s scrotum, the surgeon utilizes what is called a hemostat. Instead of an incision, which can lead a sizeable scar, a hemostat is much sharper and punctures the skin as opposed to cutting it. This leaves smaller post-surgical marks and scars a non-factor, and since the wound is so small it will have a smaller chance of becoming infected. The puncture involved in no-scalpel is so small it will heal like an everyday cut; no stitches are needed.

Open-Ended

An open-ended vasectomy is said to be amongst the most pain-free of all vasectomies. In most procedures, once the vas deferntia are cut, the two individual ends are then sealed. In an open-ended vasectomy the end of the vas deferntia that are closest to the testicles is left unsealed. Since the one end is unsealed, sperm is still able to flow into the scrotum, but because the vas deferentia are still disconnected, a woman has no chance of getting pregnant. This method of vasectomy is said to eliminate Post-vasectomy pain syndrome, otherwise known as PVPS.

No-Needle

Since local and general anesthesia are used in most types of vasectomies, people who have a fear of needles are out of luck. In no-needle vasectomy, the actual procedure is the same as a typical vasectomy in that incisions are made, but the administering of anesthesia is different. Instead of an injection with a needle, a special tool literally forces the numbing medicine into your scrotal tissue. This then numbs the male genitals as it would with an injection. Besides that, the surgery procedure is as it would be with a typical vasectomy.

Fascial Interposition

Fascial Interposition is a procedure that helps eliminate the occurrence of recanalization of the vas deferentia. Recanalization is when the disconnected vas deferentia reconnect and basically make the whole vasectomy null and void. The process of FI has increased the success rate of vasectomies significantly.

Clip

The clip vasectomy is as simple as its name suggests. It involves simply placing a clamp that will effectively stop the flow of sperm. This process does not involve disconnecting the vas deferentia

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