Friday, March 25, 2011

Vasectomy Side Effects and Vasectomy Reversal Surgery

Yesterday brought with it a return of the nerve pain on my right side. I had a good night sleep and this morning I feel only a slight little twinge on the right side. We have some landscaping to do tomorrow and I have a lot of errands to run today (that means lots of car time), so we'll see how I'm doing on Monday.

Someone asked me the question if I was happy that I had the vasectomy reversal surgery. I told them I wasn't sure yet. The new pains are just as worrisome as the pre-surgery symptoms of swelling and pain. My activity levels are still dictated by pain. But I feel better mentally. They say your testosterone levels drop off with vasectomy surgery. My level two years ago was 441, which might be on the low side for someone who is 41 years old.

So perhaps my levels are higher than before my surgery and that is causing my energy to perk up a little bit. I won't know for sure unless I get it tested. Still not sure I'm going to do that yet.

Just remember, before you have that vasectomy, there is a chance you can have horrible nerve pain which can manifest as the following: continuously, when you ejaculate, intermittently, every once in a while and the pain can be anywhere from a dull ache to such intensity, you want to cry all the time. I've heard stories of people who have suffered all the above.

Or you could have epididymitis like I did. That means your epididymous swells and you feel like you have a third testicle. The pain radiates into your stomach region and makes it very uncomfortable. This swelling can be intermittent or continuous. Mine was intermittent and then turned continuous after 5.5 years. It also was one sided and then became bilateral after 5 years.

So, have a vasectomy if you are willing to take the risk. I would say that if you've had a previous pelvic surgery (hernia repair, appendix removal, etc.) or if you have had lower back pain, you definitely don't want to have the vasectomy. Lots of guys in my support group have had these, however, lots haven't. So there may not be a correlation, but nobody knows. That's the problem, it isn't studied in the urology community, despite it being such a devastating syndrome.

Imagine, your pain ranking an 8-9 on a 1-10 pain scale. Imagine, the pain being continuous and you requiring a pain management doctor to help you get through your life. Your activity becomes nothing, your testosterone sinks to low levels, your sex life becomes almost non-existent. And you did all this in the name of birth control. Trust me, if I had to do it over again, I'd never had the vasectomy in the first place. And neither would thousands of men who suffer various degrees of post vasectomy pain syndrome.

Please, don't have it done. I know, thousands of men have it done and nothing happens to them. But if it does happen, your life will be turned upside down and your regret will last a lifetime.

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