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A while back I went into a urologist's office to get a vasectomy.
Now if you don't know already, a vasectomy is a minor surgery
which severs the vasa deferentia (vas deferens x2) of a man to prevent sperm
from entering the semen as a permanent form of birth control. It is considered
far safer and more effect than tubal ligation in women.
After I sat down and had a talk with my parents about my decision it probably
took me another month to get up the courage to really make that call and
schedule an appointment. I think it was probably a disappointment for my mother to
hear that she would never have any biological grandchildren from me, but I believe
that she respected my choice. So you can imagine my disappointment when the
doctor told me that he was unwilling to perform the surgery because I was too
young, unmarried and had no kids.
This was frustrating and it has raised a lot of questions in my mind. It's my body
and I am an adult, shouldn't I have the right to responsibly seek out sterilization?
Was he right? In a world that will reach a population of 9 Billion in my lifetime should
this procedure become more common? Isn't it unethical to send me off into
the world and into the hands of a less qualified surgeon where I might see serious
lifelong injury?
In overpopulated countries like China and India men are offered incentives for
vasectomy. Meanwhile many other countries use vasectomy as a more frequent
form of birth control than the US - a survey showed that in 2002 some 18% of men in the
United Kingdom between 16 and 69 had had a vasectomy. I was very surprised to see that that statistic even included 16 year olds!
Now here I am today, about to receive my Bachelor's degree soon and thinking
about making another request. However, I worry that I will get myself all psyched
up again just to be rejected a second time - and then what? Do I start calling up
all of the urologists in my city? In my state? Am I going to have to cross the border
for the simple procedure?
First I want to say that I think your choice is admirable. There are so many people that should seek this out as an option. (And so many men who won't because they don't want to be seen as un manly.)
I would say that if you try to find someone else, and are rejected again that maybe you should seek multiple media sources and see if that changes any of these doctors minds. I am blown away by some of the reasons doctors are refusing to do procedures.