the big V

[loriu]

i think a few of you have husbands who have had a vasectomy--how was it?

i was all gung-ho to get the mirena IUD and then stumbled upon a website that lists the side effects and they were pretty horrific and now i'm scared. had bad side effects from the pill back in my early 20's....used TCOYF method as birth control from 27-32, but got sloppy on it and got pregnant twice...

now that we have 2 kids, we're pretty done. hubby's 99% done, i'm about 95% done, although i've been feeling more done in the past few days...

but back to the big V--can you tell me how it was for your man, how he felt about it, etc. hubby wants to do it, i'm the one hesitant.

thanks!
lori
(too fertile to go w/o real birth control until i win the lotto and move out of a 1-bedroom apt!)

[Night_Nurse]

Not in your DDC but my DH had a vasectomy and it was a breeze! I should state my DH truly is a huge baby and takes medicine for almost anything possible (stumped toe, gums bleeding after flossing, you get the idea). I was amazed that he never once complained about pain or even took any of his prescription narcotic pain pills (maybe seeing me give birth 8 days prior made him feel like he had no room to complain).
The procedure was done as an outpatient in the Drs office. They numbed him up (he keeps saying "DIRECTLY into the TESTICLES!"). The whole event lasted less than an hour (45 min. tops).
They gave him a Rx for Darvocet but he only needed to take OTC Ibuprofen one time when we got home. He sat on the sofa with a bag of frozen vegetables in between his legs and played video games all day.
He had to uhmmm...submit semen samples twice after to prove a zero sperm count and then he was good to go (I think this was over month or so). No physical side effects other than he felt a "tightness" of sorts in his testicles at the time of climax for a few months. He says it wasn't painful, just a bit of a pulling or tightness, nothing that hampered the moment, and that feeling has long subsided.

I'm sure if you both want a permanent solution but maybe you're not 100%, you could always have some of your DH's sperm stored.
For us it was a wonderful solution and we've never regretted it. Of course, we were both 100% going into it. We chose that he'd be the one getting the procedure unless I had to have a c-section (which I didn't). So, hope that helps some.

[KLM99]

I'll be watching this thread. We're thinking about birth control options now too and frankly, none of them sound good. I don't want anything hormonal and the non-hormonal IUD does have some extreme rare side effects (plus, I don't really want anything hanging out in my uterus that isn't supposed to be there). We're both about 90% sure we're done. We decided to do NFP for a year (which is about when I got my period back after baby #1) and then make the V decision then.

[mkksmom]

We are gonna go for it, i think. maybe in a few months.

[lisa_nc]

I guess this isn't the post to mention my friend whose husband got a zero sperm count report and then got his wife pregnant and it turns out the hospital erroneously told him his count was zero. Can you imagine?!

[2boyzmama]

My husband has his V in August. He was given a Valium to take an hour before the procedure, the procedure itself lasted about 30 minutes (including prep time and clean up) and he was sent home with Vicodin.

He was fine the first day, just laid around watching some movies he had rented especially for that occassion with some frozen peas in his lap. Day 2 he was probably a bit too active, because day 3 he woke up sore and swollen. Day 4 his "righty" was fine, the stitch looked great, swelling was down, no discharge at all. But "lefty" had some trouble. He developed a big blood blister over the stitch, there was more swelling, and some discharge. He started doing peroxide swabs and putting neosporin on for a few days. Then the stitch dissolved and left him with a hole because the skin hadn't healed yet.

The pain wasn't bad, he did take a vicodin on day 3 and day 4 I believe, those were the worst days, but then he was fine. The swelling in "lefty" caused some discomfort when he would get in and out of the car, or sitting in certain seats, etc. We did call the dr back, and they reminded us that it's two separate procedures (assuming there are two incisions, some men have anatomy that allows for only one incision, it just depends on the angle of the vas deferens) so it's not uncommon for one to heal fine and one to take a few more days.

He's had no other issues once "lefty" healed. He hasn't taken his samples in yet (the uro won't declare him sterile until he's had two samples with zero count) but that's just because we're not having sex yet anyway! He has his little specimen containers here, and sometime before my 6 week appt will take them in. He says he feels no difference at all when he ejaculates, no pain, no pulling, nothing.

If you want details on the actual procedure, I can share over PM, or you can also search on YouTube and will find several men who have posted video clips of their procedures. There's also a webpage I found when I googled "personal stories, vasectomy" or something like that, it was a man who blogged about the procedure with pictures his wife took every step of the way. It was really cute actually, he rated each page with a "squeamish factor" and left no detail unexplained! My husband didn't want to know any details about the procedure, he wanted to blissfully ignorant, but I wanted to know, so I watched every movie I could find online.