What Is A Vasectomy
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Roughly half a million American men opt to get a vasectomy each year. It is very nearly 100 percent effective, as opposed to a condom, which sees a 15 percent failure rate among couples who rely on it exclusively over the course of a year.
The traditional vasectomy is performed with a scalpel, in your doctor's office. You are placed under local anesthesia, and the whole procedure usually takes less than 30 minutes. Very few medical procedures are simpler, yet many men who would benefit from a vasectomy are hesitant to “go under the knife.”
These men should be made aware that the knife is optional.
The no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) procedure was invented in China in 1974, and it has steadily grown in popularity cross the world. The first American surgeon was trained in the process in 1985, and today over 5,000 doctors practice the technique. Over a million Americans have undergone the procedure since 1985. NSV is appreciated by all vasectomy patients as a more gentle technique that minimizes bruising, and not just the last resort for the blade-averse.
In a NSV procedure, the doctor will locate your vas deferens under the skin of your scrotum by hand. Using a small set of forceps, your doctor will separate the layers of tissue and then create a tiny opening in the skin to form an opening for the vas deferens to be gently lifted out, cut, tied, clipped and/or cauterized and put back into place. Because the skin opening is much smaller in a NSV procedure than with a conventional incision, it can close quite quickly without the necessity of suturing. NSV advocates believe that their procedure produces less complications and discomfort with less bruising, smaller vasectomy scars, and faster recovery time.
No matter what surgical technique you choose, you are going to want a local anesthetic to be administered. This is commonly delivered through a needle.
A relatively new technique that will likely appeal to the same scalpel-squeamish men who favor NSV is the mostly painless “jet injection” anesthetic technique. Pioneered by dentists, the anesthesia is delivered by a highly pressurized spray.
Those men squeamish about having a sharp object near their boys aren't likely to favor having their vasectomy performed with a laser, but that option exists as well. Know that this procedure offers absolutely no advantage over traditional vasectomy or NSV, and is in fact more expensive to perform. But if you have your heart set on recreating that famous scene from Goldfinger, well then, have at it...