I have 3 kids and the existing methods available for ensuring we don't have a 4th are, at best, inconvenient. (Condoms are annoying; the pill messes with my wife's emotions; and either of us getting snipped seems scarily irreversible.)
I'll be keeping an eye open for trials here in the US and on any more news about this procedure trickling out from India.
Bizarre to be giving contraceptive advice on HN, but you should really look into IUDs. They're far less hormonal than the pill, and only require maintenance every 5 years.
Some types of IUD do not use hormones, at all. Copper IUDs actually operate on the sperm, similarly to the procedure we're discussing.
IUDs, unfortunately, got a bad rap in the 70s, because of a dangerous design flaw, but they're quite safe now, and in use all over the world because of their low cost and ease of use (nothing to remember, no pills to take, nothing to put on).
Plus vasectomy sounds scary painful and potentially dangerous. I'm done having kids but I don't wanna get snipped. Granulomas? In MY testicles? It's more likely than I think.
I had a vasectomy done in my early thirties. Can't complain, really.
It was a short operation and I'd much rather re-do that than go to the dentist and have my cavities drilled. The side-effects mentioned in the article aren't really a problem, at least in my part of the world. Hadn't even heard of them myself, actually.
After the operation, my balls were a bit swollen for a few days but it didn't hurt and I was back in bed on maybe 3rd of 4th day. Everything has been like before except that I score an exact 0% in the fertility test. And have lots of fun with my wife without anybody having to remember to take pills or enjoy some extra hormones (which I wouldn't like).
I probably would have traded messing with condoms or my wife's contraceptives to this new solution. But now that a vasectomy became an option anyway, I wouldn't have had much incentive to even try it out.
Vasectomy isn't that bad. The procedure is moderately unpleasant but short (20-30 minutes), and the recovery is a few days of groin ache, easily treated by the topical application of a bag of frozen peas.
To second yahelc's post... definitely look into IUDs. My SO has been on the non-hormonal (copper) one for 2 years. The only downside was her first cycle post-insertion being rather painful. They are covered by most health insurance plans -- heck, she was on the state's insurance and even they covered it.
