The topic retains developing – Heiko Otto’s companion often broaches it – and with rising frequency now after the beginning of their third little one.
The topic is a vasectomy, the medical time period for male sterilisation.
“All the other methods of contraception have a drawback, and female sterilisation involves more extensive surgery,” Otto says.
“It’s often the woman who takes responsibility for birth control, which isn’t quite fair.
“My partner would like me to have the procedure.”
But the 41-year-old is undecided. He says he’s nonetheless in “the discovery phase”.
“It stirs something up in me,” he explains.
“Not really fear of the surgery itself, although that has a little to do with it.
“There’s just something so final about it.”
Consider it everlasting
A vasectomy is the surgical chopping and sealing of the ducts that convey sperm from the testicles to the urethra – the tube that in males carries semen and urine out of the physique.
It’s almost 100% efficient, and is by far the most secure type of male contraception, based on the Pearl Index, which compares strategies of contraception.
The possibilities of restoring the person’s fertility by surgically repairing his sperm ducts are superb for the primary two or three years after the operation, however then steadily drop, based on urologist Dr Marc Armbruster.
”It’s a step that ought to be seen as everlasting,” he says, including that only a few males want to undo it later.
Sometimes, males ask whether or not a vasectomy has an opposed impact on libido or the power to have an erection, he provides.
“The answer is no, since only the sperm ducts are cut and not, for example, the nerves involved in an erection.”
If erectile dysfunction or lack of libido do happen, the trigger is usually psychological, he factors out.
Berlin School of Psychology professor of medical psychology and psychotherapy Dr Timo Storck says that having a vasectomy might be tougher on an emotional stage than on a bodily or psychological one, as the person could wonder if he’ll remorse giving up his fertility.
This is what’s on Otto’s thoughts: “It would really be the end of me having more kids.”
Although three kids has all the time been the quantity that he and his companion envisioned, he says, “I can’t say with absolute certainty that our family is complete.
“If our financial situation changed, for example, I’d definitely want more kids.”
And then there’s a second situation: “Should we part ways at some point, which I naturally hope doesn’t happen, then I’d only be able to start another family by having much more extensive surgery, if at all.”
Prof Storck notes that it’s necessary to not use psychology or morality to inform somebody mulling a vasectomy what to do, as “it’s a very personal, individual decision that should to be carefully weighed”.
”Sometimes it may be tied to different questions, resembling how the individual usually offers with main steps, with committing to one thing,” he says, including that one other necessary query is the willingness to bear a surgical process that isn’t medically mandatory.
Less stigma
Dr Armbruster has been doing vasectomies for about 15 years.
“When I started, I had the feeling that the patients only told their very best mates about it,” he remembers.
“It was a taboo subject.
“Now they’re more likely to come and say, ‘My neighbour recommended it and a guy in my football club had it done too.’
“Men talk about it much more openly.”
Prof Storck says, “I think it’s sneered at less today than it was 10 or 20 years ago.
“There’s more curiosity about the motives than rejection and ridicule.
“In 10 or 20 years, there’ll be even more openness about it; who knows whether this will lead to more vasectomies?”
The typical vasectomy affected person, based on Dr Armbruster, is in his late 30s, has two kids and doesn’t want any extra.
But a few are youthful males who say they don’t have any kids and don’t want any.
Men who resolve to have a vasectomy ought to make sure, he says.
“The ones who come to me have made their decision and have no more reservations.”
Otto nonetheless wants time to consider it.
If he decides to go underneath the knife, he says it’ll be primarily for his companion.
“At any rate, the process of reflection isn’t finished for me yet.
“My partner has now ordered the (contraceptive) pill again for the time being.
“But I’m not saying with 100% certainty that I won’t have a vasectomy.” – By Christine Cornelius/dpa
