18 January 2019, Tim Burton
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Vasectomies are a form of surgical contraception that involves cutting and tying the tubes that deliver sperm from the testicles. It is a relatively straightforward procedure, but it’s common to have a lot of questions, so here’s a quick guide for you and your partner.
Without going too far back to cringey PHSE classes at school, here’s a little summary of how vasectomies avoid pregnancy.
A woman become pregnant when sperm reaches her egg. Vasectomies work by stopping sperm from ever leaving the testicles. There are small tubes (called vas deferens) that carry sperm from the testicles, up to the prostate, and out through the penis.
A vasectomy means these tubes are cut and tied, meaning the sperm never makes it out of the testicles, which inevitably means that pregnancy is not possible when a couple has unprotected sex.
After the operation, a man will still ejaculate semen, as most semen is not produced by the testicles, but by the prostate. Only around 5% of semen is made up of sperm, the remaining 95% is seminal fluid from the prostate. After the vasectomy, ejaculation will appear the same as before.
It is possible to reverse a vasectomy, but the success of the operation will depend on how long it has been since you had the initial vasectomy. The NHS says that the success rate of reversing a vasectomy is about 55% in the first 10 years after the initial operation. However, that figure drops to 25% if it has been more than 10 years.
Because it is not always possible to reverse a vasectomy, you should make sure you are absolute certain that you want a vasectomy before you have the operation.
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If you would like to know more about vasectomies, take a look at our Urology Health page.