Record number of American men are getting vasectomies as abortion access erodes

A record number of American men are getting vasectomies every year, a study suggests.

University of Chicago researchers looked at the annual insurance claims of 57 million people and found that the number of procedures performed each year between 2014 and 2021 increased by 26 percent.

A vasectomy is a surgical procedure to sterilize a man, during which the tubes that carry sperm from the testicles are either cut or sealed.

As access to abortion has eroded since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some doctors say vasectomies are probably even more popular now.

Planned Parenthood began offering free vasectomies to uninsured young men.

The graph above shows that a record number of men are now seeking vasectomy.

Scientists have found that the rate of vasectomies rose by 0.54% among men aged 18 to 64 in 2021, a new record high.

This eclipsed the previous high of 0.52% set in 2018.

Men who had two or more children or a wife over 34 were most likely to have the procedure, they said.

Geographically, those in the North Central region — including Iowa, the Dakotas and Missouri — were the most likely to benefit from the operation.

Dr. Monica Dragoman, an obstetrician at Mount Sinai in New York who was not involved in the study, said IPU“The reasons (for this increase) are deeply personal and multifactorial.

“But motivations can include concerns for their partner and fear of having children they don’t want.”

Abortion access could drive rates up further since Roe v Wade, with 22 states now restricting the procedure and 15 having banned it altogether.

For the study, researchers looked at reported vasectomies in the Merative MarketScan Commercial Databse insurance claims database, which covers up to 57 million Americans nationwide.

They only looked at men aged 18 to 64 who underwent the procedure between 2014 and 2021.

Men married to other men, whose marital status could not be determined, or who had two or more wives were excluded.

An analysis was then performed to calculate a rate based on the number of men in the database divided by the number of people who had had a vasectomy, which the researchers said reflected the national vasectomy rate.

A total of 325,910 vasectomies were recorded during this seven-year period.

The vasectomy rate was 0.42 percent in 2014, according to the findings, but by 2021 it had risen to 0.54 percent, a 26 percent increase and the highest rate ever.

By age group, people aged 35 to 44 were also the most likely to have surgery.

Doctors said this could be because men at this age feel they have already started their families and no longer want to have children.

The greatest increase was seen in men without children, with the rate increasing by 61 percent over the study period.

This was followed by those who had a wife over 34 (up 41 percent), who were single (up 40 percent) and between the ages of 18 and 24 (up 37 percent).

Doctors have suggested that this increase may also be due to the procedure becoming more accessible.

It only takes about 10 minutes and can be done under local anesthesia, they explained, with minimal pain for patients.

Doctors are also more likely to offer the procedure after the American Urological Association urged them to make it more accessible in December 2012.

In the United States, over time, births have declined while deaths have increased, leading to population decline.

Fertility rates have fallen the most since 2005 in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and California.

Organizations such as Planned Parenthood — which aims to end unwanted pregnancies — also offer free vasectomies, which can drive up prices.

In October, the organization’s branch in St. Louis and southwestern Missouri announced that it would perform 100 free vasectomies for uninsured and underinsured patients. This was the third year they offered this procedure.

This rise may also be driven by the perception that the procedure can be reversed.

Doctors say this is possible, but it becomes less likely the longer the person leaves it after the procedure.

A vasectomy is a quick and normally painless procedure in which doctors block small tubes in the scrotum to prevent sperm from leaving the man’s body and causing pregnancy.

There is also another type of vasectomy in which a doctor numbs the scrotum before making two small cuts in the skin on either side of the scrotum to reach and then cut the tubes that carry sperm out of the testicles.

A small section is removed and the two ends of the tubes are then closed, either by tying them down or heat sealing them.

A man who has a vasectomy can still ejaculate, but that ejaculate will no longer contain sperm.

Nils Seubold had a vasectomy last year in The Nutcracker. He had been considering the procedure for some time, but decided to take the plunge when Roe v Wade was canceled.

He said: “I definitely have to say it’s a really good choice for people who have decided to figure out where they’re going in life…it’s definitely not as scary as you might think.”

After the United States Supreme Court struck down federal abortion protections when it overturned the Roe v Wade case in June 2022, demand for vasectomies, a male form of birth control, increased in the states. -United.

In October 2022, clinics in some parts of the country reported seeing up to four times more patients undergoing surgery than before the June ruling.

Planned Parenthood said it saw a 53 percent increase in traffic nationally to vasectomy information on its website after the Roe v Wade reversal.

Lawmakers have responded to the growing demand. A California law will take effect in 2024 to make vasectomies cheaper by allowing patients with private insurance plans to have the procedure done at no cost other than monthly premiums.

Many men use this procedure to delay the birth of children, and some seek to reverse the procedure when they are ready to start a family.

Although the procedure can be reversed, experts consider it a permanent form of birth control.