1/25/2024 0 Comments Getting the snip“It’s really a case of women saying, ‘No, why don’t YOU go and do it’, and it really is much safer, it just makes more sense for men to do this,” he said. That’s partly because of improvements in the way the procedure is done these days, but also because of the general empowerment of women, he believes. My GP, however, assured me that men getting a vasectomy is not only cheaper and safer (because it’s a less-invasive procedure than tubal ligation) it’s also more common. One of my mates, who had kids decades before me, laughed his head off at the idea of being “neutered” as he put it, and his wife dutifully had the operation instead. My wrong-headed impression, growing up, was that most married couples turned to tubal ligation at this point - the woman got her tubes tied, and vasectomy was mainly a punchline for jokes. Obviously, having the vasectomy was the logical thing to do, but the only way I could talk myself into it was by making it a work project, a story to write, so I started doing the research. In actual fact, I was far too frightened to go through with it, and even a lifelong hatred of condoms and a withering fear of an accidental pregnancy (we have two children, they are perfect, we don’t want any more and I’m too bloody old anyway) wasn’t doing anything to change it. So when she decided, not unreasonably, that her body had had enough of being on the pill and that she should stop taking it, I was, theoretically at least, ready to “take one for the team”, as my cheery vasectomist put it.Īs I say, theoretically. It involved a mewling baby, a sleepless whirl of panic and pain, and a husband complaining about being tired. And her recovery did not involve sitting on the couch weeping onto a remote control and nursing frozen peas. My wife, for example, did, after all, give birth without the blissful IV sedation that we can, and indeed must, choose for the snip. Which is why no man who’s had a vasectomy should look for too much sympathy from their partner. Well, there are two answers to that, and I’ll give you the most important one first, because you need to be prepared to hear it coming at you: it’s not as bad as childbirth. Why? How? And why now? These are all very good questions, but I know what those of you who are considering it, or know they might one day, really want to know - how bad was the pain? Hold him down so the doctor could get more anaesthetic into him was awful enough, but it was the double-punch of pain he felt - “like I’d been kicked in the balls really hard by someone, who then slashed me down there with a knife at the same time - it was both a dull pain and a stabbing one all at once” - that stuck with me.Īnd yet somehow, despite all that, I’ve now had the dreaded snip, after years of putting it off. His description of kicking trays of instruments across the room while the nurse tried to In the most unwise example of tightness ever, he’d decided to save some money by having a local anaesthetic and staying awake for the whole thing, which was only mildly disturbing, until the drugs, unfortunately, stopped working. My personal procrastination was particularly powered by the chilling testimony of a former work colleague, Mick, who crabbed into our office in evident pain a few days after his procedure and proceeded to relate his tale of horror. Nor, it turns out, will there ever be anything good about the day after a vasectomy, when you wake up with what looks like an accident at a liquorice factory in your pants and a gut pain that feels like the mafia put a whole horse in your bed overnight and made it kick you in the balls. And there’s nothing we’re more likely to put off than having a vasectomy, because it’s just never, ever a good day to have someone attack your scrotum with sharp implements. Yes, some men are go-getters, day-seizers and goal setters, but most of the ones I call friends are, like me, exceedingly proficient procrastinators. He shared his recent snip-by-snip experience. Home » Getting the snip: Why I ‘took one for the team’ and had a vasectomy Getting the snip: Why I ‘took one for the team’ and had a vasectomy By Stephen CorbyĪfter two children, Stephen Corby has had enough kids.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |