I don’t want to denigrate anyone’s manhood. After all, there’s a lot more to being a man than simply having the ability to impregnate a woman. And while there are plenty of reasons for a man to undergo a vasectomy, most of them are unrelated to health.
That might explain the rush by men to see urologists to get snipped. The Washington Post says that urologists report a significant spike in requests for vasectomies in the wake of the Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“It is something I put on the back-burner of my mind until very recently, when the Supreme Court decision happened,” Thomas Figueroa, 27, who lives in Tampa and told the Post that he never wanted children. “That was basically the triggering factor right there. It pushed my mind to say: ‘Okay, I really do not want children. I’m going to get this vasectomy now.’ ”
“Triggered” by Dobbs? What has happened to American men?
Figueroa registered for a vasectomy with Doug Stein, a urologist known as the “Vasectomy King” for his advocacy of the procedure.
Stein said that before Friday, he received four or five vasectomy requests a day. Since the court’s decision was announced, that number has spiked to 12 to 18 requests per day.
“It was very, very noticeable Friday, and then the number that came in over the weekend was huge and the number that is still coming in far exceeds what we have experienced in the past,” Stein told The Post.“Many of the guys are saying that they have been thinking about a vasectomy for a while, and the Roe v. Wade decision was just that final factor that tipped them over the edge and made them submit the online registration.”
It’s a good time to be the ruler of Vasectomyland.
Ideas and ideals of manhood have changed a lot. Being “triggered” is apparently so acceptable that men aren’t ashamed or embarrassed to admit to their triggering.
That said, a man choosing vasectomy — a mostly irreversible procedure — does so for a variety of reasons.
Stein said his practice is booked through the end of August with vasectomy appointments, prompting him to open up more days in his schedule to accommodate patients who have recently registered. He and his associate, John Curington, said the decision overturning Roe has directly factored into their patients’ requests for vasectomies. Men under the age of 30 who do not have children are requesting vasectomies in greater numbers than before, the physicians said.
“I’d say at least 60 or 70 percent are mentioning the Supreme Court decision,” Curington said. “And a few of them have such sophistication as young men that they actually are thinking about Justice Thomas and his opinion that contraception may fall next. And that’s shocking. That’s something that doesn’t enter into our conversations ever, until this week.”
Do these under-thirty men understand that the procedure is forever, that they will never be able to have their own children? A Pew survey finds that 44% of adults aged 18-49 say it’s not very likely or not at all likely they will ever have children. But let them find the right woman who wants children, and you have to wonder about those percentages. Are men really that reluctant to have a child?
The point is simple: although technically reversible, a vasectomy would make having a child far more unpredictable and, for many men, impossible. Having the procedure demands a lot more thought than simply being “triggered” by the hysterical rantings of biased media.
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