STI: A little snip to save in these hard times

April 12, 2009

A little snip to save in these hard times

By Lesley Alderman 

 

Last November, I learnt to my great surprise that I was pregnant. At age 47, I was not exactly trying to conceive.

 

My husband and I were conflicted: Another baby - how wonderful! Another child - how stressful! How risky! How expensive!

 

With the economy in a free-fall, this seemed no time to have a baby.

 

When the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at seven weeks, we were sad. But also relieved. My husband's only half-joking response was: 'It's time for a vasectomy.'

 

It turns out we were not alone in our thinking. Urologists and clinics have noticed an uptick in recent months in the number of men requesting vasectomies.

 

It is too early to proclaim a bona fide trend in elective sterilisation, because no organisation regularly tracks the number of vasectomies performed on an annual, or even a monthly, basis.

 

The most recent comprehensive data comes from a study published in The Journal of Urology in 2006, which estimated that 527,000 vasectomies were performed in the United States each year.

 

But the recent anecdotal data, if they hold, would have a historical parallel in the Great Depression, when the birth rate fell sharply.

 

As this recession continues, it is understandable that more people might hesitate to expand their families. A baby born in 2006 - the latest year for which data are available - will cost middle-income parents US$260,000 (S$394,000) by the time the child reaches 17, according to the Agriculture Department. And that doesn't include college.

 

In Southern California, Planned Parenthood says that compared with last year's first quarter, requests for vasectomies were up more than 30 per cent in the first three months of this year at its clinics in San Diego and Riverside Counties, where 64 of the procedures were done.

 

'The recession has created a new level of urgency among our clients,' said spokesman Vince Hall. 'We used to have a three- to six-

 

week waiting period. Now men have to wait 21/2 months to get an appointment.'

 

Helping spur demand, he said, might be the fact that unemployed men often qualify for free vasectomies under Family PACT, a California family planning programme for low-income households.

 

On the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where the financial industry's collapse has compressed many a household budget, Dr Marc Goldstein says he has been performing more vasectomies than usual lately.

 

Through most of last year, Dr Goldstein, who directs male reproductive medicine and microsurgery at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Centre, was performing about six vasectomies a month.

 

Then, in November, the number rose to nine, where it was holding steady through the end of March.

 

'I've been in practice for 30 years, and I've never seen a spike like this,' Dr Goldstein said. 'Many of my clients work in finance and say they feel anxious about the expense of an added child.'

 

In Seattle, Dr Charles Wilson of the Vasectomy Clinic says that in the last half-year, he has performed an average of 123 of the procedures each month - 13 per cent above the year-earlier average.

 

Experts agree that from a practical and financial point of view, vasectomies are an ideal form of birth control. The procedure, which cuts or seals the vas deferens (the tubes that carry sperm from the testicles), typically costs US$500 to US$1,000 but is usually covered by insurance.

 

The surgery is done in a doctor's office with local anaesthesia and requires less than 20 minutes. Recovery takes a matter of days and it is nearly 100 per cent effective.

 

New York Times