Choosing a Surgeon
Updated: Sep 22
How to Choose a Vasectomy Reversal Surgeon: Choosing a doctor in today's world is getting more and more difficult. It seems now that even when you do your homework and identify the doctor you think is the best, you arrive and are greeted by a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant. It does not stop there. These same extenders are even being allowed to perform your surgery in some locations, even though they are not surgeons, or even doctors sometimes. No one goes to university hospitals to have a vasectomy reversal performed anymore. The cost is too great in these centers and vasectomy reversal will not be covered by your insurance. As such, the younger generation of physicians are no longer receiving training.
10 Questions to Ask at Your Vasectomy Reversal Consultation: By the time you get to your consultation, you should already know a great deal. If the consultation is complete, you might genuinely not have additional questions. If it is not, some questions to consider would be the following:
Are you planning to use local or general anesthesia? If the choice is general, there will be too much ventilatory motion to use an adequate amount of magnification.
Are you going to reverse only one or both sides? Many people quote prices for only one side to get you in the door. One testicle usually works a bit better than the other and you do not know which one that is. It only makes sense to reverse both testicles if you have two.
Who is going to perform the surgery from start to finish? You might be very surprised.
When can we have sex again? The body takes 30 days to adequately heal from any type of surgery. At 90 days, your tissue strength is roughly 80% of normal, but most activities can be resumed at 30 days. Semen is flowing upon completion of the procedure but you do not want to potentially damage the repair and compromise your result by resuming sex too soon.
When may you return to work? This will vary according to occupation but the healing statements with regard to resuming sex also apply here.
When should I test my semen? If it is normal to require 2 months to make a new sperm, and another 2 - 4 weeks for them to enter the ejaculate, there is no point in doing this inside of 3 months. You might even allow a few additional cycles to see if you become pregnant as well so that you might even be able to avoid this.
How can you get in touch with the operating surgeon after your procedure if you have any concerns? This is critical, and getting an answering service or an on call physician is not optimal. Dr. Daniel will provide you with his personal cell phone number. You will not need this, but you will have it.
When can I bathe? A lot of people will offer a different opinion. In general, you may shower the day following your procedure.
When can I get in a body of water? This is different from bathing. You should not submerge your incisions until such time as they have completely healed.
How long should I expect it to take for the skin stitches to dissolve? These will start to dissolve in about 2 weeks and will get inflamed. Depending on moisture content, they may take several more weeks to go away.
How to Verify a Vasectomy Reversal Surgeon's Experience: This could prove easier than one might think if your provider is honest. Just ask. Many people quote experience in surgery in general, not in vasectomy reversal surgery. They might also quote you total numbers of procedures, but not limit that to just those involving vasectomy reversal.
Who Wil Actually Perform Your Vasectomy Reversal? This seems simpler than it is. You might speak with on person only to find someone else is performing your procedure. If you are going to be put to sleep, then you really have no idea. PA's and NP's can be allowed to do many things that would have been unheard of only a few years ago.
Why Your Surgeon Should be Able to Perform Both Types of Reversals: This seems intuitive. If you cannot tell what type of surgery you might need ahead of time, you are compromising your potential permanent results if the correct operation is not performed because they did not know how.
