Can I Have Children After Having a Vasectomy?
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I had a vasectomy, but now I want to have kids again. What can I do?
First of all - this is not an uncommon scenario, as fertility specialists see it quite often.
You’ve got a couple options, but you will require a bit of help. The good news is that you’re likely still continuing to produce plenty of healthy sperm - usually with vasectomy, only the highway that the sperm uses to travel from the testicle out to the urethra is cut/obstructed.
There are two main ways that you can try to father a pregnancy again. One option is to have a surgery called a vasectomy reversal. This is a surgery where a urologist (usually a special kind of urologist who is a fertility expert) will reconnect your vas deferens back together on each side. These surgeries can vary in how successful they are depending on how long ago your vasectomy was (higher chance of success if the vasectomy was 5 years ago than if it was 20 years ago), but surgeons that are experts at this usually have a higher level of success. This would be the option for those who want to father a pregnancy via natural means (AKA with sexual intercourse)
The other option is to have a procedure performed where a urologist extracts sperm directly from the testicle or the epididymis (the area where sperm is stored on top of the testicle). This procedure is usually quick and can even be done while you are awake - however, the sperm is extracted and then must be used for a pregnancy via assisted reproductive technology (like intrauterine insemination or in-vitro fertilization), not via natural means. In other words, you can’t use this sperm to have a pregnancy with sexual intercourse.
To find out more about your situation, or to talk more about the options or the evaluation involved, reach out to a urologist - ideally a fertility specialist.
*This post is for educational purposes only, and should not be taken as medical advice. If you have personal medical questions, consult with your personal physician*