We are forever being promised that a male pill is ‘just around the corner’ and as much as I passionately believe more money must be spent on its development, we should also be investing in an option that is already available.
Vasectomies are disappearing from our local NHS services and we shouldn’t be letting them go without a fight.
As the only non-barrier method of contraception available for men, vasectomies play a leading role in the battle for gender equality in the bedroom.
Men need to be better informed about all types of contraception, (including those their partner may be taking) but it is vital that they have easier access to the vasectomy, after the last 10 years have shown a 64 per cent decline in the procedure in the UK.
The current system operates like a postcode lottery. Access to the procedure depends on how financially viable your local authority deems it to be. But removing ‘the snip’ from NHS services is not only a false economy, it’s bad for men, worse for women and, in my opinion, has the potential to put serious strain on the future of our society.
For one, cutting vasectomies is poor financial planning. The Family Planning Association state that every £1 spent on contraception saves £11 in averted health costs long term, so the NHS removing the option of vasectomies will cost us dearly in the future.
Surely the cost of a procedure as minor as a vasectomy is substantially smaller than the cost of an unplanned pregnancy, leading to either a termination, or a birth followed by entire lifetime of medical care?
While some may argue that men who want the procedure that badly will be willing to pay for it privately, at a cost of around £500 the price is far from realistic for men who are already struggling to make ends meet.
I would also go as far as to say that vasectomies are good for the environment. We’re using the planet’s resources faster than it can replenish itself, and population growth is increasing exponentially.
Environmental anxiety has been spoken about a lot in the press this week, and people are taking all sorts of measures to reduce their impact on the planet.
You still orgasm. You still have semen, there just isn’t any sperm in it anymore. Winner.
It’s all well and good minimising your carbon footprint, but reducing the number of footprints altogether is even better. I’m not saying that we should adopt a Chinese-style ‘one child policy’, but with one in six pregnancies in the UK being unplanned, wouldn’t it be good to take active measures to reduce this number as much as possible?
The vasectomy is a contraceptive option that leaves no room for user error and requires no maintenance after the eight week sperm count check-up.
Although no contraceptive is 100 per cent effective, the horror stories you hear about a friend of a friend who got his wife pregnant after getting the snip, is more likely to be due to him missing a check-up, which would have confirmed whether or not his tubes had healed properly.
We should be advocating it, not erasing it. We need to change our approach to contraception. For too long, women have carried the burden of pregnancy prevention despite providing only one fertilisation candidate each month while men make millions of competitors each day.
Hormone imbalances, irregular bleeding, IUD insertion and period cramps. Then, once you decide to let one of your eggs go out on a date, it’s nine months of growing an actual human inside of you.
Wouldn’t it be nice if, after all that trauma, male partners took one for the team?
As a society, we need to become less ashamed when it comes to talking about sex and fertility. But it is only through talking that we learn about our options.
Shame breeds misinformation, too. I’ve spoken to many men who seem to be under the illusion that post-vasectomy orgasms are void of pleasure and are as dry as the Arizona desert. False.
You still orgasm. You still have semen, there just isn’t any sperm in it anymore. Winner.
Men might feel uncomfortable talking about their balls, especially if the chat involves a scalpel.
But the procedure can actually be carried out through keyhole surgery, requiring only local anaesthetic with the patient being able to walk out of surgery stitch-free without a scalpel in sight!
Having a vasectomy is a big decision, and not one to be taken lightly. The NHS recommend that ‘You should only have a vasectomy if you’re sure that you don’t want more, or any, children. It should always be seen as permanent.’
In a world where we are living longer, more sexually active lives, I understand that prospect of surgical contraception is daunting. But we should be supporting men who have made the decision to not have any/anymore children.
As with female contraceptives, male methods are surrounded with stigma. Sterilisation does not equal emasculation.
Men need to be better informed about the option of a vasectomy and demand access via the NHS.
What use is a male contraceptive if men aren’t encouraged to consider it? Whilst we eagerly await the arrival of the male pill, we shouldn’t forget about an option that is already developed but sadly underfunded and underused.
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