Reservoir Dad videos and interviews doctor and assistant during his no scalpel vasectomy to help demystify the process
***EDITOR’S NOTE: There is nothing graphic in the video below. The camera pans between doctor and assistant and always stays above the neck. Still, the guy’s getting his balls snipped.***
My vasectomy had been a regular topic of conversation between me and my wife within a few weeks of the pee-stick confirming the conception of our fourth child, Maki. After watching my wife’s body being probed by doctors and warped by pregnancy and torn apart and sown up again each pregnancy, I thought it was definitely my time to step up for a medical invasion.
Still, Maki was fourteen months old before I finally went under the knife with Dr. Snip, the well-respected Aussie Doctor, Nick Demediuk. I spent thirteen months avoiding a vasectomy for several reasons—the thought of my weakest and most sensitive area being severed made me queasy, exposing the most secretive part of my body to complete strangers made me shy, having a male touching my genitals made me anxious (I mean, what if I got a hard-on?), and saying goodbye to my baby-making powers forever led to moments of real uncertainty.
Looking back on it I’m actually impressed by the lengths I went to avoid what was – even in my own mind – inevitable. And when I announced to my website readers that I would commit to writing a series of posts documenting my vasectomy it was simply my way of forcing myself to go through with it.
Still, if anything, the commitment only accentuated the insecurities and doubts I had. But I wrote about them honestly and did my best to laugh at them right up until I was driving over to Dr Snip’s office with two of my children, Tyson 3, and Maki 1, in tow.
It was on the way there that I had the idea to film my vasectomy [emphasis is the editor’s]. I had an hour to mull it over and every discussion I had with myself about was won by the for team—it was a crazy idea, it was potentially very humorous, it was unique as far as I knew; and at the same time it had the potential to demystify a procedure that many men were terrified of.
The clincher though was the conversations I’d had with men over the preceding several weeks, both in person and online. Every man, without fail, said that if they were going to get a vasectomy that it had to be under a general anesthetic (and, surprisingly, the biggest reason was the man touching their genitals fear.)
I was booked in for a local anesthetic. I was getting the job done fully conscious, aware of my surroundings and of the fact that my vas deferens were being pulled from the safety of my scrotum, slashed apart and shoved back inside. The Doc and Nurse were deep inside my personal space, inviting an awkward conversation.
I’m Reservoir Dad. What else was I going to do but film it?
—This video and its journals first appeared on Reservoir Dad
Hi, please read the following guidelines from the British Association of Urology surgeons before committing to a vasectomy and fully understand the potential chronic pain risks stated :
https://www.baus.org.uk/_userfiles/pages/files/Patients/Leaflets/Vasectomy.pdf
From that source : “Troublesome chronic testicular pain is reported in up to 15% of
patients and can be severe enough to affect day-to-day activities in
up to 5%”
15% = 1 in 7
5% = 1 in 20