Special Message to Men Who Have Never Caused a Pregnancy
If you have never caused a pregnancy, how do we know that you are fertile? 1% of men have no sperm in their semen (azoospermia) and a larger percentage have a low sperm count (oligospermia). The question is important for two reasons, which vary in importance depending on the age of the man considering vasectomy.
Young men (let's say, men under 35):
Young men who opt for vasectomy before fatherhood may be more likely so seek vasectomy reversal
in the
future than are men who choose vasectomy when they are in their 40's or
50's. If a young man who has never caused a pregnancy undergoes a
vasectomy, then years later has a reversal that is "unsuccessful" (no
sperm to the semen post-reversal), how do we know that he had sperm in
his semen before his vasectomy?
It would be
nice to
know this before your vasectomy in case you ever opt for a vasectomy
reversal. Indeed, if you have no sperm in your semen, there is no reason
for a vasectomy in the first place!
Older men (let's say, men over 35):
Nearly every man takes chances now
and then by not using contraception despite the fact that he doesn't
want to cause a pregnancy. Alcohol impairs one's judgment, and couples
take more risks under its influence. If a man has reached his late 30's
without ever causing a pregnancy, especially if he has failed to use
contraception on a number of occasions, he must begin to wonder if he is
fertile and whether he even needs a vasectomy.
For pre-vasectomy testing of semen, you have two options:
- If you live close to our office in Tampa/Lutz, and you have completed our online registration, you may bring a semen sample to our office prior to your vasectomy. Bring it in a small container with a lid, such as a pill or vitamin bottle, baby food jar, etc. The sample should be 30 minutes to 4 hours old. Bring it M-F between 9 AM and 3:30 PM. There is no charge for that test.
- Wherever you live, you may purchase a home test kit. Kits are available at some pharmacies, some retail outlets like Walmart, Amazon, Ebay, and some specialty companies. One is called SpermCheck Vasectomy. Search on "post-vasectomy semen test". If the test shows that your semen contains sperm, you will need a vasectomy to provide sterility.
If the pre-vasectomy office or store-bought test is negative, we will provide a lab request for a formal semen analysis to corroborate the simple office or home test with a more sensitive one. If the formal semen analysis confirms that there are no sperm in your semen, there is not much sense in having a vasectomy. We will suggest further tests if you would like to delve more deeply into why there are no sperm in your semen. For that, we charge no more than the $150 procedure deposit already paid when scheduling.
If you are not ready to schedule a vasectomy but would like to determine whether there are sperm in your semen, you may purchase a home test kit without a doctor's order (#2 above). For a formal semen analysis, you will need a doctor's order, and these tests are often covered by insurance.
So for various reasons, both younger and older men who have never caused a pregnancy should have their semen checked for sperm before undergoing vasectomy. From June 2012 (when we began this testing) to April 2019, 528 men who had never caused a pregnancy agreed to provide a semen specimen prior to vasectomy. Nineteen (19) of them had no sperm. Eight were on testosterone (known to stop sperm production in some men), and one had had chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. But that left 10 (of 519) men (2%) who had no sperm, yet no reason at all to doubt their own fertility potential. One man (age 44) with no sperm in his semen was delighted that he did not need a vasectomy, but wondered aloud how much money he had wasted on condoms all those years!