Men Did Your Vasectomy Work?

Did you know that according to (Reuters Health) - Many men who have a vasectomy never return to submit a semen sample to make sure the procedure actually worked! After a vasectomy, it is important for men to submit semen samples to make sure there is no effective or living sperm. Most urologists encourage at least two consecutive sperm-free samples. However, many men fail to go back for these check-ups. In a study published last year, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation found that one-quarter of the patients they followed never returned to submit a semen sample. And half didn't get a second sperm analysis, as their surgeon had advised.

In a current study, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation looked to see if scheduling a follow-up appointment at the time of the vasectomy would help. Over 18 months, the researchers followed 228 vasectomy patients, half of whom were given a scheduled follow-up appointment and half of whom were only told to bring back a semen sample in two months. Overall what they found was, that 84 percent of patients with an appointment returned to give a semen sample, and nearly half of them returned to provide two consecutive sperm-free samples.

The scheduling of an appointment seems to encourage more men to confirm that they are indeed sterile, rather than just assuming the vasectomy worked. Although the study also showed that the majority of men in both groups failed to have a second test. The problem, may not be so much with the patients, but with the post-vasectomy process. Asking these men to submit two sperm-free samples may be overly demanding. Their conclusion and remedy based on the research is, instead of dropping a semen sample off 8 to 12 weeks after their surgery, make them an appointment three months out for them to return with a semen sample and if it's all-clear they need not have a second test.

Just a little ditty for these men. Before you jump into that bed, make sure those little critters are dead! O.k I guess that was some what lame, but you get the jest of it!