GO FORTH AND SUBTRACT

Singular advice: skip the snip or save your sperm (The Australian, February 14th, 2005)

It has been called the unkindest cut of all, but many single US men in their 20s are choosing a life of childlessness by undergoing vasectomies.

The snip is traditionally the choice of married men who have had children, but doctors have been surprised to find younger men increasingly keen for the operation.

Dairenn Lombard, 24, from Los Angeles, decided by the age of 11 that he did not want a child. Two years ago he read up on the subject and booked himself into hospital. "Not a day goes by that I'm not very grateful I had it done," he said.

More than 500,000 US males a year have vasectomies, a procedure that blocks the vas deferens, the tube that carries sperm from each testicle.[...]

Bill, 32, from San Francisco, does not want children. But he was talked out of a vasectomy 18 months ago by his doctor, who warned him that in a small number of cases the operation can lower the libido and/or cause considerable discomfort.

"The doctor said, 'Think about it, these are your testicles'," said Bill. "I feel very lucky to have seen a doctor who made me take the potential side-effects seriously."

It isn’t a great sign when the only wisdom we can think of passing on to young men trying to avoid fatherhood is that it might make their jewels ache.

Posted by Peter Burnet at February 13, 2005 7:01 PM