How Much Does a Vasectomy Hurt?


I'm a little ambivalent about writing about this, as it is a quite private matter, but if my tale helps quell the nerves of someone who is considering it, then it will be worth the effort.

I had a vasectomy.  Don't worry, this post won't have any pictures - and if you feel like skipping out on reading the rest, I totally understand, but please come back next time!  My wife and I have the family we want; we're not looking to add anymore Scoundrels of Steel.  Vasectomy was the best way for us to implement this decision.

Before I describe the experience, I need to hop on the soapbox for a bit.  While I do have several friends who have gotten "the snip", some of the background feedback I was picking up was that the procedure is emasculating.  When doing the referral, my family doctor couldn't stop congratulating me; you see, in the area around her practice, the trend seemed to be that husbands were pressuring their wives to get their “tubes tied” (tubal ligation).  If you ask me, (and yes this is based in some out-dated conceptions of masculinity), there’s nothing less manly than putting your woman in a greater danger than you’re willing to face yourself.  Tubal ligation is an invasive surgical procedure; vasectomy is not.  I’d hate to see what these guys if they ever ran into a bear or something, they’d probably feed their wives to it while running away screaming.  While there may be reasons to want to be fertile down the road, none of them apply to me, and like David Eddie says, a vasectomy is “a terrific gesture of monogamy”.

Dismount from soapbox.

I had heard about ‘Gentle Vasectomy’ being done in Peterborough, unfortunately, the doctor who performed them retired without finding anyone to take over his practice.  I did find So Simple Vasectomy in Oakville, which was closer anyway.  The procedure has an extra cost not covered by the health care system, but I figured the lessened pain and shortened recovery time was worth a few bucks.


I'm a little ambivalent about writing about this, as it is a quite private matter, but if my tale helps quell the nerves of someone who is considering it, then it will be worth the effort.

I had a vasectomy.  Don't worry, this post won't have any pictures - and if you feel like skipping out on reading the rest, I totally understand, but please come back next time!  My wife and I have the family we want; we're not looking to add anymore Scoundrels of Steel.  Vasectomy was the best way for us to implement this decision.

Before I describe the experience, I need to hop on the soapbox for a bit.  While I do have several friends who have gotten "the snip", some of the background feedback I was picking up was that the procedure is emasculating.  When doing the referral, my family doctor couldn't stop congratulating me; you see, in the area around her practice, the trend seemed to be that husbands were pressuring their wives to get their “tubes tied” (tubal ligation).  If you ask me, (and yes this is based in some out-dated conceptions of masculinity), there’s nothing less manly than putting your woman in a greater danger than you’re willing to face yourself.  Tubal ligation is an invasive surgical procedure; vasectomy is not.  I’d hate to see what these guys if they ever ran into a bear or something, they’d probably feed their wives to it while running away screaming.  While there may be reasons to want to be fertile down the road, none of them apply to me, and like David Eddie says, a vasectomy is “a terrific gesture of monogamy”.

Dismount from soapbox.

I had heard about ‘Gentle Vasectomy’ being done in Peterborough, unfortunately, the doctor who performed them retired without finding anyone to take over his practice.  I did find So Simple Vasectomy in Oakville, which was closer anyway.  The procedure has an extra cost not covered by the health care system, but I figured the lessened pain and shortened recovery time was worth a few bucks.

The appointment was booked for a few days after getting back from Germany (I called sometime the previous November).  Leading up to the big day I hadn't done much reading; I think I use denial way too much - as I write this, I'm acting like the first days of school won't have any significant impact on our family life.  I'm a little unsure about going into too much detail, but the instructions were to... *ahem* shave myself, "as [I] would shave [my] face".  I guess they didn't know how sloppy I am with getting every single face whisker.  The good news is that was probably the scariest part of the whole procedure.

On the day of the appointment, I was given a valium (by my choice) for my nerves, and I nodded off in the waiting room.  The doctor explained that at times I would experience pain like being kicked in the junk (he compared it to when my kids jump in my lap too aggressively), but it was closer to being pressed... we used to call it the 'gas pedal' when I was a kid (if you didn't know, boyhood is basically the life of a gladiator).  I went home basically pain-free.

I had to refrain from exercise or even lifting the kids for the next week, which sucked.  I did have days where I felt 'tender' - as if having experienced a kick earlier that day.  I think I used a painkiller (ibuprofen) once, and ice 2-3 times.  Using ice down there is no fun, so I never lasted too long with it.  I missed Band On The Run, which I had been signed up for, but I started exercising the week after no problem

Best of all, I was riding a bike, which was what I was most nervous about.  In a couple of weeks, I have a date with a plastic cup to confirm that the procedure worked.  I hope this has been informative to some of you, if there's anything you felt I didn't cover, you could email me (link is on the page), or look at the link for So Simple Vasectomy as they have a FAQ page.  I'll be back soon with more endurance sport, I promise.

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