The primary benefit of vasectomy is highly reliable permanent birth control and prevention of unintended pregnancy.
This benefit can easily be obtained with a simple surgical procedure in less than 15 minutes within a doctor’s office under local anesthesia. Vasectomy puts men control of their reproduction and allows men not to be reliant upon their partners compliance with birth control.
The control of one’s reproduction, the decreased anxiety, and the lessened fear of pregnancy are valuable benefits of vasectomy. Some men may even experience increased sexual satisfaction as a result of decreased fears of fathering an unintentional pregnancy.
Although vasectomy is a procedure for men, women also benefit from vasectomy.
Vasectomy allows women to avoid the risks of pregnancy and childbirth, the risk of using hormonal birth control, and the risk of female sterilization (tubal ligation).
Stopping hormonal birth control
Vasectomy allows women to stop using hormonal birth control.
Hormonal birth control for women is extremely safe and can provide good reversible birth control, but hormonal birth control must be used daily and require periodic physician visits for evaluation and prescription refills. Hormonal medications have to be used regularly and without fail. Although use of hormonal birth control can provide women with many health benefits, the main risk of relying on hormonal birth control is failure.
The birth control pill has a failure rate of approximately 5%. In comparison, vasectomy has a failure rate of 0.3%. If 1000 women use birth control pills 50 will experience failure and become pregnant. In comparison, if 1000 men have vasectomy 3 men may have partners who experience pregnancy.
Avoiding tubal ligation
Vasectomy allows women to avoid having a tubal ligation or tubal occlusive procedure.
Female sterilization (also known as tubal ligation) is incredibly safe but these procedures are considered major procedures performed in a hospital often under general anesthesia, and inside the abdominal cavity. There are risks of general anesthesia and risks of injury to internal abdominal organs with female sterilization procedures.
Hysteroscopic trans-cervical sterilization (Essure) is a newer form of permanent birth control for women and the advantage of this newer form of birth control is that is can be performed safely in a doctors office. Unfortunately if women have complications from this form of birth control then additional major surgery will be required and often complications of this newer form of birth control requires a hysterectomy.
Both vasectomy and tubal ligation have similar rates of complication. The main difference is a vasectomy complication can often be managed safely within a doctor’s office but tubal ligation complications often require hospitalization and additional surgical intervention.
Main risk of female sterilization
The main risk of female sterilization is failure. Failure results in pregnancy. Pregnancy after female sterilization is at much higher risk of being an ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy in the fallopian tube). Ectopic pregnancy is serious and life threatening. Ectopic pregnancies can grow in the woman’s fallopian tube can cause the tube to rupture.
A ruptured fallopian tube caused by an ectopic pregnancy requires emergency surgery.
Vasectomy failure
Although vasectomy can fail, many vasectomy failures will never result in pregnancy because the amount of sperm released are too low to cause pregnancy. Even if a pregnancy occurs after vasectomy, the pregnancy is more likely to be a normal pregnancy in the uterus and not in the woman’s fallopian tube.
Vasectomy or tubal ligation: Which is best?
Although both vasectomy and tubal ligation are safe and effective, vasectomy is easier to perform, safer, the complications less serious, and can easily be performed within a doctor’s office. Why would you not choose vasectomy?
