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Dr. Bastuba reveals the most common vasectomy myths, the most common stating that men cannot produce sperm after this procedure.
Dr. Bastuba:
One myth in terms of vasectomy is that after ten years a male no longer makes sperm and that you must adopt. Well adoption is a wonderful option for any couple and I always feel that it’s a beautiful humanistic thing to do. The reality is that sperm production is not affected by vasectomy and so, ten years is no barrier, 20 years is not a barrier, 30 years is not a barrier to wanting to start a family together.
In fact, very recently, I see couples from around the world and within the past few weeks had a couple come in from Moscow and the male was over 50. It had been 34 years since his vasectomy. He had fathered two children prior to the vasectomy. He was accompanied by his wife who was in the 30-year age range and we performed vasectomy reversal on him.
We found wonderful sperm on both sides – one side actually even allowed the highest success rate, vassal vasostomy where we simply put the vas back together to itself. The other side required a more difficult procedure called a vasoepididymostomy where we need to go around the blockage closer up to the testicle, but both of these are highly successful and we were able to repair this gentleman 34 years after his vasectomy and with a very high expectation – 90% or better, that he will have sperm back in his ejaculate and that that couple should be able to go on to have a pregnancy.
Another myth is that women after age 36 basically fall off a cliff and that they are no longer able to have children. While it is true that many females postpone starting their family now a days, and that does have a significant negative impact for many couples their family making, most every couple can start a family together.
One of the things I see often is a female will come to me in her early 40s, even into the mid 40s, and want to start a family, never been pregnant previously. That’s a significant difficulty, not from a vasectomy reversal standpoint. As I tell that couple, “The male is the least of our issues at that point.”
But on the female side, with proper evaluation by a reproductive endocrinologist, she may still have good fertility potential and if she does not have good fertility potential still using donor egg, which would be an egg from another female who is younger, with in vitro fertilization, would give her very similar fertility options to a woman of the age of that donor egg, which could put her back in her 20s again in terms of her fertility potential.
So even for these couples there is absolute hope that they could start a family together. It would not be both of their genetic heritage, but it would allow her to carry a child and for them to start a family together.
About Dr. Martin D. Bastuba:
As San Diego's leading subspecialist in male fertility and male and female sexual dysfunction issues, Dr. Martin Bastuba gives hope to couples who have been unable to conceive, and to men and women who are experiencing the anxieties and frustration of sexual dysfunction. He offers complete diagnosis, treatment, prevention techniques and education for his patients.
Visit Dr. Bastuba at his Web site