On the fence about getting snipped? Here’s one reason to schedule your vasectomy on the double: better sex.
A new study out of Germany concluded that men experienced improved sexual satisfaction following the procedure. According to the report, which studied 294 couples in which the male had recently undergone a vasectomy, “The reason is presumably the absence of anxiety of unwanted pregnancies.”
While this data supports research out of Stanford — which found men with vasectomies had more sex per month than their unsterile counterparts — it also debunks a number of myths surrounding the procedure.
Let’s talk about this vasectomy procedure, please.
The approximately 20-minute procedure involves your urologist making two tiny incisions in the scrotum to disconnect the vas deferens, which is the sperm transporter, from the rest of the male baby-making system. Those little swimmers only make up about 5 percent of semen so there’s no noticeable difference in a guy’s ejaculate following a vasectomy. The procedure usually doesn’t require stitches and men may experience a little discomfort immediately following the snip but are generally back to normal within a week.
Even though the number of men undergoing vasectomies in this country has declined in recent years, you can’t blame it on the procedure’s reliability. According to the National Institute of Health, only 15 to 20 of every 10,000 couples will experience a pregnancy, compared to 1,400 of every 10,000 couples who use a condom and 500 of every 10,000 couples who use the birth control pill.
Finally, testosterone is produced in your testes, not your vas deferens, allowing the hormone to travel around your body through your bloodstream and leaving your virility intact. You may be sterile but you are still a manly man.
Can we get to the good part?
Okay, you’ll have to wait about a week to heal following your vasectomy but once you get the green light from your doctor, you will need to ejaculate between 15-20 times before all the remaining sperm have worked their way out of your system. It’s practically like a prescription for having lots of (protected) sex with your partner.
But before you even consider ditching other forms of birth control, you need to confirm you’re in the clear. You can do so with SpermCheck, an over the counter test that gives you your sterility status and is way easier than going back to your doctor to get tested.
Okay, I’m listening
Here’s the good news about getting snipped: studies show that men experience heightened orgasms and improved erectile function following vasectomies.
According to the study out of Frankfurt University, 40 percent of men reported that their sex lives had “significantly improved,” which is not nothing.
Want more? Over 12.4 percent of men reported having more sex more often after the procedure. This finding jibes with the Stanford study in 2015 that concluded that men with vasectomies had sex 5.9 times per month, compared to 4.9 times for intact guys.
Dr. David Guo, the author of the Stanford study, told Men’s Health that he thought that once the risk of an unplanned pregnancy was out of the equation, couples would be more inclined to get busy in the bedroom.
The elimination of all that baby stress also has another benefit: better orgasms. When you’re stressed out your body releases fewer sex hormones, like testosterone, and more cortisol, which redirects blood flow away from your love machine. Eliminating the looming fear of pregnancy allows you to relax, which improves erectile function and makes orgasms more, well, orgasmic.
What’s the bottom line? “Vasectomy does not have a negative impact on the sexual satisfaction of the affected couples,” the German study concluded. “In fact, sexual satisfaction improved for the sterilized men, while the satisfaction of the women was not reduced by the vasectomy.”
So if you’re on the fence but ready to commit to permanent sterility — and like to have better sex more often — getting a vasectomy might be just what the doctor ordered.
