At least that’s the trend Dr. Chris Schrepferman has noticed in his own practice in Louisville, KY.
One reason: More of their wives’ doctors are women.
“Vasectomies are a very common procedure, the most effective form of birth control available, with low risk to the patient,” Schrepferman says. “The majority of the OB/GYNs [Obstetrician/Gynecologists] now are female, and we have seen a shift, at least in my
practice, as those women recommend vasectomy be the couple’s form of birth control.”
Why?
“They’re frankly fed up with the idea that women are responsible for contraception. Their options are to put their own patients through abdominal surgery and do a tubal ligation, or to put them on long-term hormonal manipulation, both of which have risks to the long-term health of the female.
“Or they can get their wienie husbands, who won’t take 10 minutes of discomfort, and have them get a vasectomy.”
Schrepferman acknowledges there can be complications but insists they are very rare, particularly when compared to the risks women face.
“The smartest business decision I ever made was to let a couple of OBs whose husbands were having vasectomies watch the procedure,” Schrepferman says.
“As I was operating, I could hear them saying, ‘Oh, this is bull- shit! I’m not doing tubals on women
anymore! This is so easy! These men need to grow apair!’
They were really upset about husbands who weren’t willing to do this to keep their wives off hormones.
“It was an eye-opening experience, and they had a point—do what’s right for your family, protect your wife. That’s a good Wabash value.”
Reversing the Irreversible
Schrepferman performs dozens of vasectomies a year, but his favorite operation is reversing them.
“What I like to do more than anything is vasectomy reversal surgery. I love the fact that you are adding something good to someone’s life rather than taking out something bad. When someone has a cancer diagnosis and you take the cancer out they’re grateful, but at the end of the day, they’re still dealing with cancer. They live with that fear. But to add a child to a family—I get a lot out of that.
“Modern techniques have led to an extremely high success rate for that surgery now, regardless of how long it has been since the vasectomy.
“My passion is this work in male fertility.”
