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Comment by kisielk | Hacker News Reader

Not sure why some guys have so many reservations about this, it sounds like a simple and reversible procedure with a quick recovery. I'd get it if it were available in Canada.

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Uhm, it involves cutting open your scrotum.

The idea that people will casually do this is ... hilarious.

And current birth control methods for women include injections of artificial hormones, dilating their cervix and putting a piece of plastic or metal part their vagina and into their body, and surgery to open the stomach and clamp certain organs shut. Whether or not it's hilarious, those practices are accepted as normal.

Birth control that involves body modifications is anything but casual, but to draw the line of it being ridiculous at when it involves male genitalia is a bit narrow-minded.

The line is at surgery, don't act like anyone is saying otherwise.

What's so special about the scrotum versus another part of your body? People regularly punch holes through their ears and other parts of their skin, and even get their children to do the same. A lot of parents even agree to or request that skin from the end of their newborn's penis is cut off.

You must be young. Vasectomies are a perfectly normal and routine operation in later life. I'd wager a large percentage (if not a majority) of age 50+ men in the US have them done. It hurts for a weekend, and then it's over, not a big deal. This sounds like a significant improvement over the current procedure.

"I'd wager a large percentage (if not a majority) of age 50+ men in the US have them done"

In my sample group, it's not as large as you think. I'm a 43 year-old post-vasectomy father and out of a group of ten close male friends/relatives I've encountered 2 close calls and 2 oops babies. And these are intelligent responsible men. The majority of the excuses range from "I just never got around to it" to "I don't want to get cut". Seriously?

I'm in my mid-twenties, and was seriously considering it when I thought it was reliably reversible. My reading at the time indicated that this wasn't the case and there was a good chance that you'd stay sterile after reversing the operation. This struck me as a very good reason not to get a vasectomy.

The incisions are very small, made under local anesthetic, and recovery time should be quick. Doesn't that sound less frightening than hormonal birth control?

Local anaesthetic is hardly a selling point to me. I'd prefer general, even thought that has the slight risk of death. Better than the (in my experience) 100% chance of "whoops! We'll give you another shot of that and give it a few more minutes to set in."

That's happened to be with 2 back surgeries, one on my arm, and every filling I've ever had done.

Anyway, I'd get this procedure done in a heartbeat anyway.

The scrotum isn't "cut open". It's a pinhole-size incision.

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