A vasectomy should be considered by patients to be an irreversible procedure. 

It really involves a long discussion between the patient and his partner before we would advise patients to undergo a vasectomy. 

Essentially the procedure is done either under local anaesthetic or a mild general anaesthetic. 

The vas which is a tube that comes from the kidney and the bladder and produces sperm is immobilised, a small segment is then resected. 

What I do is leave the testicular end or the bottom end free and tie the top end. 

I also suture the bottom end in a separate plain to decrease the chance of these two ends joining together. 

It’s usually a day procedure and patients are usually very comfortable the next day and usually able to return to work.

It’s very important to consider a vasectomy as irreversible. 

You have to wait two to three months for sperm counts to show no sperm to be present. 

There is a low chance one in 3,000 that the ends might rejoin again, called spontaneous recanalisation. 

We do offer sperm donation for patients if they so choose and it’s also important to remember that there’s a small incidence of post vasectomy pain syndrome.