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Comment by jlebrech | Hacker News Reader

I thought it was going to be a pill, we already have vasectomies.

But this is an easily reversible vasectomy, with an even less invasive initial procedure (a couple of injections rather than a keyhole surgery).

Men don't generally get vasectomies until they (think they) are done having children. This would be a reasonable procedure to have when you are young, have it reversed when you are settled and want to have kids, then have re-done (or get a vasectomy) when you're done.

1) Vasectomies are a surgical procedure, this is an injection. Opening up the male contraceptive market to those unwilling to undergo surgery but willing to get an injection is HUGE.

2) Surgery requires healing time, this doesn't.

3) The risk of injection is significantly less than the risk of surgery.

4) LARCs - Long Acting Reversible Contraception, those that work for an extended period of time without user action but are reversible when pregnancy is desired, are pretty much the holy grail of contraception. Currently we have IUDs and implants as the only LARCs. The Depo Provera shot is sorta-kinda LARC-ish, it requires user action 4 times a year. This is intended to be reversible with a second injection, eventually.

5) Adding more contraceptive options, especially for men, is pretty much never a bad idea. Choice is good. Even with all the options there are my spouse and I have not found not a single option that is ideal for us. THIS would be absolutely ideal for us and I'm stoked to hear about it.

6) Its much cheaper!

> 1) Vasectomies are a surgical procedure, this is an injection. Opening up the male contraceptive market to those unwilling to undergo surgery but willing to get an injection is HUGE.

> 2) Surgery requires healing time, this doesn't.

> 3) The risk of injection is significantly less than the risk of surgery.

> 4) LARCs - Long Acting Reversible Contraception, those that work for an extended period of time without user action but are reversible when pregnancy is desired, are pretty much the holy grail of contraception. Currently we have IUDs and implants as the only LARCs. The Depo Provera shot is sorta-kinda LARC-ish, it requires user action 4 times a year. This is intended to be reversible with a second injection, eventually.

> 5) Adding more contraceptive options, especially for men, is pretty much never a bad idea. Choice is good. Even with all the options there are my spouse and I have not found not a single option that is ideal for us. THIS would be absolutely ideal for us and I'm stoked to hear about it.

> 6) Its much cheaper!

2) it's not like you would have that much sex after children it could not wait for healing

Just to note, vasectomies are no walk in the park, and should be treated as final rather than a simple contraception option (though they can be reversed, just not easily).

While you can go back to day-to-date activities after a few days, there is still extra time to heal fully. Pain can hang around for a long time in some cases—even years. Infection is also a big concern, so take it should be taken very seriously.

With all of that said, a vasectomy is a much better and simpler option than female sterilization for a majority of people and has a high success rate.

Just to add, I don't want my comments to scare any males considering the option. If you are at the time in life to stop having children, and you have no condition preventing the procedure, it's really the best option and will more than likely not have any issues. It sometimes doesn't even require pain medication.

I can't help but feel you are downplaying the procedure by saying that it sometimes doesn't require pain medication.

In the clinic I went to they hand you a subscription for pain medication as routine and give you an ice pack to put on your scrotum.

I was happy to have taken the pain meds before the anesthetics wore off I'll tell you!

Just to note, I'm seven days post-op on this procedure :) And while I did not take any meds, I was happy to be sitting in bed with an ice pack watching March Madness. So there was definitely discomfort.

Not American, and the only place I've heard of March Madness is on reddit in a reference to ... guess what? :)

http://fortune.com/2017/03/16/vasectomies-during-march-madne...

lol, the doctor mentioned this! That's hilarious. The timing was definitely a coincidence for me though.

This isn't a vasectomy...it's a gel injected into the vas deferens which does not block the flow of sperm, but reacts with the negative charge of the sperm to render them infertile. The gel may also removed with another quick injection to flush.

but you might forget about it for 10years and it might flush itself.

>About 540 men have received it in India, where it continues to prevent pregnancies in their partners 13 years after treatment

Disregarding that, this is such a non-issue that you're being downright silly. Women have IUDs and implants and don't suddenly "forget" they have them.

Ignoring that there's absolutely no reason not to bring this to market because there's a small chance of user error. That's like saying "condoms shouldn't exist because you can run out."

If one forgets that a doctor injected something into their vas deferenes, they've got other problems.

I can see it now... YC Winter Batch 2018. SaaS tool to remind people when they need their testicle injection.

This is intended to last until a second injection is administered to reverse it.

nosproggs.io

You might, but I doubt many women just forget to get their IUD renewed. It's a surgery and can be treated as such.

They will not give you a vasectomy in the US as a young childless man. Something about 'changing your mind later'. It's very patronizing.

Definitely patronizing!

Not only that, but even when a woman is in obvious pain and having issues which only a hysterectomy will solve (ovarian cysts) - if she is under 30 or so, they won't give it to her.

My wife and I made the decision not to have children a long time ago. In the meantime, she's had times where she went into the hospital ER for pain caused by ovarian cysts. She attempted to inquire about a hysterectomy from her doctor after these episode, only to be rebuffed about "what about having children later", etc.

To this day she still has problems, but it has waned greatly now that she's approaching menopause. She'd still like to do it just to stop having a period, but it's no longer the crazy amount of pain that it was.

I found it frustrating for her that as an adult, she was being restricted from making choices about her own body to improve her health and quality of life.

Stupid question but why would a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) prevent cysts from forming on the ovaries? The ovaries are the hormone producing organs.

well technically she can make choice about her body, but nobody can force doctor to perform the procedure, so unless she can do it by herself then bad luck

and yes i am aware you could sue such doctor or hospital, bit it's just too much have to force someone to do something they don't wanna do

Many won't but many also will. There are lists floating around the net of "childfree friendly physicians."

Really? I went to a clinic that specialized in it, and there was no problem at all. No patronizing, very comfortable, made sure I was aware of the difficulty of reversal, but made no effort to dissuade me. The operation itself was very professional and fast and other than a few days of soreness during recovery, there were no adverse effects after a week.

Though this was in a major urban area.

how much it cost in US? though i am from EU but i would be curious if it's covered by insurance since it has nothing really to do with my health and it's just my wish for my own convenience, i should really talk to my own general doctor i haven't seen in almost 20 years or maybe i should contact some reproduction clinic

i am more worried about cost of freezing sperm since i am relatively young and you never know

It was about $1k. I am not sure whether it's covered by insurance or not but I didn't try.

Have you tried? I got one fairly easily at the age of 22. I was actually armed to the teeth with debates and arguments for my doctor, but when I asked him to perform it, he shrugged and said "Okay, I can fit you in two weeks from now"

It's expensive to reverse vasectomies and it often doesn't work though, so this is great.

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