A Guide to the Vasectomy Reversal Procedure
A vasectomy is a surgical procedure that offers a permanent solution to birth control. It works by removing all or part of the vas deferens, the tubes that deliver sperm into a man’s ejaculation, thus making the man infertile. In the U.S. alone, over 500,000 men opt to have a vasectomy each year. Of these men, it’s estimated that five percent, for whatever reason, opt for a vasectomy reversal procedure.
How to Proceed into this Procedure
Before even you even think of reversing the vasectomy, you should consider very hard the necessity of doing so, and the benefits of it. Besides that, consult your doctor or your personal physician who will guide you through all the tests to determine whether you are fit to take on another surgery.
Stages in the vasectomy reversal procedure
The first vasectomy reversal procedure would be the anesthetic stage. At this stage, the patient has an option to choose between general anesthetic and local anesthetic. Most of the times, many patients go for general anesthetic.
The second vasectomy reversal procedure is similar to vasectomy procedure, which is the incision of the skin of your scrotum and making the openings on both the right and the left of the scrotums. This incision will expose your vas tubes which were previously tied or sealed either through traditional way, laser or any other alternative ways.
The third vasectomy reversal procedure is the determining stage, whereby the surgeon will use a microscope and see for any signs of scarring or blockage. Any liquid around the area will also be checked for the content of semen.
The fourth vasectomy reversal procedure involves the surgeons decision-making. This is basically where he decides whether to give you vasovasostomy or epididymostomy. And this depends on the previous stage’s outcome report. If there is semen found in the tube area, then you will be sent for vasovasostomy, while if there were no semen then you would go for epididymostomy.
The subsequent procedures are more complicated, compared to the vasectomy itself. A vasectomy reversal acts to reconnect the two ends of the vas deferens that were severed in the initial procedure, and the ends of the vas deferens are the size of a pinhead.
There are two ways of reversing a vasectomy, both requiring micro-surgery. This means that the procedure would require the surgeon to perform the surgery under special microscopes which make the correct stitching of the tiny tubes possible. The two procedures are Vasovasostomy and Epididymostomy.
Vasovasostomy is when the surgeon sews the cut ends of the vas deferens back together. This is the most common type of vasectomy reversal. Epididymostomy is more complicated, but is performed when there is blockage in the epididymis. It is done by attaching the vas deferens directly to the epididymis instead of the other end of the vas deferens.
Microsurgical Vasectomy Reversal
With the development of hi-technology equipment and computerized machinery, it is possible today to reverse a procedure which some ten to fifteen years ago would have been unthinkable. The use of a microscope or other magnification device must be used in order to effectively complete the procedure. That’s why microsurgical vasectomy reversal is so successful. During this procedure, a doctor or micro surgeon uses a microscope to enhance the view up to sixteen times. With such a good view of the surgical area, the surgeon is able to reconnect the two pieces of the vas deferens to allow the man to once more become fertile.
Microsurgical vasectomy reversal is a shorter, and often more effective, procedure than other reversal procedures. With microsurgical vasectomy reversal, the procedure generally takes a shorter time and is performed in an outpatient capacity. The patient is usually back to work in a week or two.
Microsurgical vasectomy reversal has proven to increase the chances for the procedure’s success. That’s why microsurgical vasectomy reversal is so popular. The success rate for the procedure is almost ninety-nine percent. Before microsurgical vasectomy reversal surgeons didn’t use magnification tools. The success rate, as you can imagine, wasn’t very high due to the difficulty of the surgeon being able to see what he was doing. Now, the use of a microscope makes microsurgical vasectomy reversal a very effective procedure for reversing the vasectomy process.