Why Do Men Want To Reverse Their Vasectomy?
An excerpt from Dr. Sherman Silber's book, How To Get Pregnant
Vasectomy is one of the most common operations performed today in the United States, and it is the most popular method of birth control in the world. About twenty-five million American men have been vasectomized, and almost a quarter of a million more undergo this operation every year. Despite careful counseling and the warning that this procedure should be considered a permanent step, many men change their minds at a later date. A marriage can break up, and the man may remarry several years later.
In this marriage both husband and wife generally find themselves wanting to have more children. The death of a child, an improvement in financial stability, or simply a change of heart with a desire for a bigger family may result in intense regret at having been sterilized.
One patient of mine was working abroad and was only able to visit the United States two weeks every year. He and his wife had two healthy children and decided that their family was complete. On one of their trips back to the United States, the husband had a vasectomy performed. The day after his vasectomy, his wife was killed in an automobile accident and one child was in critical condition for several weeks. He knew just one day after his vasectomy that it had been a terrible mistake.
A fascinating example of how the most permanent decision not to have children can change with the times is that of a thirty-year-old man who came to see me for reversal of a vasectomy performed ten years earlier. He was known to have a family history of "polycystic kidney disease." which is hereditary and leads to complete kidney failure and death by the mid-forties. Because he had been advised that his life span would be short, he'd decided quite rationally, along with his parents' consultation, to have a vasectomy performed when he was twenty year sold. Ten years later, kidney transplants became so successful that his expected lifespan changed dramatically for the better. His wife and he then naturally decided to have a vasectomy reversal.
I remember reading with extreme sadness a newspaper story about how the first baby born on New Year's in 1990 in St. Louis was found dead in his crib of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) a month after his birth. Death in childhood is extremely common. I have seen many hundreds of cases of couples who thought they had all the children they wanted, but then, when a child died, they wanted the husband's vasectomy reversed in order to have more. One man I operated on was actually a vasectomy counselor at a Planned Parenthood center and had warned more than ten thousand men about not having a vasectomy until they were certain they would never want more children no matter what tragedy or accident might befall their family. Then his nine-year-old son died after being hit by a car in his neighborhood while riding a bicycle. He immediately wanted his vasectomy reversed.
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