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Vasectomy – I am regretting it because I feel I need more children.

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African man wants children

Five years ago, I did a vasectomy when I was 45 years old. However, I am regretting it because I feel I need more children. Can this procedure be reversed? Thank you. Josiah

Dear Josiah,

Vasectomy is a surgical procedure done to disconnect the two tubes (vas deferens) which carry sperm from the testes into semen. Note: Semen is different from sperm, and each come from a different location along the male reproductive system.

Vasectomy is done by males who feel they have already completed their families and don’t wish to have more children as a permanent family planning method. Vasectomy can be reversed still through surgery to reconnect the vas deferens. Pregnancy rates of about 30 per cent to over 90 per cent have been achieved worldwide depending on the type of procedure used to reverse vasectomy.

Many factors affect whether a reversal is successful in achieving pregnancy, including time since a vasectomy was done (less than five years will give better chances), partner age, surgeon experience and training, and whether or not you had fertility issues before vasectomy. A case scenario is of a 55-year-old who consulted Women’s Hospital International & Fertility Centre recently. He had a vasectomy reversal 27 years after vasectomy was done, but still had sperm in his semen when we did semen analysis.

Note: Vasectomy reversal is not a common procedure in our sub-Saharan Africa. However, a fertility doctor will guide you on where to have the procedure done or give other treatment options that can help you get biological children such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment with Testicular Sperm extraction (TESE).

Answered by Dr Joseph Kafuuma Women’s Hospital International and Fertility Centre, Bukoto-Kampala. Send questions to the Dr via editor@goodnewskla.com

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