Go to any Nigerian hospital or family planning and the you would notice that the healthcare providers are silent about the option of male sterilization called vasectomy
Since the stark reality of an exponentially increasing population without a corresponding or matching rate of infrastructural and human development had imploded in the faces of government leaders and had actually stalled any developmental efforts they undertook in education, healthcare, road maintenance, security etc, a lot of attention has been given to birth control as a way of controlling an ever increasing population.
Different localised campaigns in all local languages are played everyday everyday on radio and TV stations; newspapers and handbills are replete with information about birth control. But something has been consistently missing and it is as if the designers of the program forgot that it takes two persons to sire children. Instead, women are always the ones being turned to for birth control measures with the men largely unhindered and restricted to encouraging them to consider condoms which many of them are still reluctant to use – preferring to go ‘raw’ instead. I beg to ask, what is the sin of women?
We all seem to forget that men, as a major contributor in conception also have a reproductive system whose alteration will prove far more effective in birth control than any other methods. A Yoruba proverb is translated roughly into, “if the chief caterer does not cook, the chief taster will not lick”.
This implies that women wouldn’t have had to worry about pregnancies if the source of the seed is blocked and one good way of doing this is through a medical procedure called vasectomy.
Vasectomy is a simple procedure that takes about 15 minutes to perform. It is performed under local anaesthesia and during the procedure, a surgeon seals or cuts the sperm-carrying tubes (vas deferens) to prevent sperm from metering the fluid when ejaculation occurs. It is a ‘permanent’ and effective way to control conception.
In a survey carried out by a medical practitioner on Twitter, more than 70% of male respondents said they have not heard about vasectomy. Of the 30% who heard about it, about 80% of them would not do it as they are scared it is a permanent, irreversible damage to them.
By allaying the fears of these persons, removing the burden of birth control, removing the burden of birth control quests, educating the general public more about it, vasectomy becomes more expedient and must be encouraged in birth control campaigns:
Most concerns for most men borders around whether it is safer and reversible when they decide to have children. Through a procedure called vasectomy reversal.
Vasectomy reversal (vasovasostomy) reconnects the tubes (vas deferens) that were cut during a vasectomy. It reconnects each tube (vas deferens) that carries sperm from a testicle into the semen. After a successful vasectomy reversal, sperm are again present in the semen and you may be able to get your partner pregnant.
Professionals must however be consulted for this so nothing irreversibly vital is damaged.
(ii) It no longer causes impotency: Although vasectomy is considered a permanent form of contraception, advances in microsurgery have improved the success of vasectomy reversal procedures. The procedures remain technically demanding and expensive, and may not restore the pre-vasectomy condition. For a vasovasostomy, two microsurgical approaches are most commonly used. Neither has proven superior to the other.[1] What has been shown to be important, however, is that the surgeon use optical magnification to perform the vasectomy reversal. One approach is the modified 1-layer vasovasostomy and the other is a formal, 2-layer vasovasostomy.
Most male respondents cited fear of impotency as a major reason why they cannot undergo vasectomy. It is pertinent to state here that vasectomy does not affect the flow of blood to the spongy veins of the penis that cause erection. If anything, vasectomy makes the act of lovemaking more pleasurable as it erases the fear of anything ever going wrong and also with the exhilarating feeling of spermless semen ejaculation.
It reduces the psychological burden on women: More men should undergo vasectomy and help their women from the psychological stress of birth control methods joining the scare or treatment of fistula, menstrual cycles, ovarian cysts, ectopic pregnancies and such other related diseases.
It is the most effective: Faced with two solutions to a problem, a rational human being will most likely chose the one that cost less and give the most effective results. For couples and partners who are thinking about family planning and birth control, the most and effective and cost-saving solution for them will be vasectomy.
Reduces Responsibility: As trite as thus last point may seem, sexually active man with multiple partners who are likely to father a lot of children with different mothers would do well to get vasectomized as it will help them maintain their lifestyles with the consequent responsibilities of fatherhood especially in a patriarchal world where men especially bear all or most of the responsibilities in feeding, housing, entertaining, educating and even wedding off his children.