Contact your urologist for any complication including severe pain, swelling, bleeding or temperatures greater than 101. If things are going well, you do not have to return for a postop visit.

The patient is asked to wear tight fitting shorts or a jockey strap for support. He may want to continue this support over the next several days. An ice pack should be placed over the shorts or jockey strap (not against the skin, as a skin burn can develop). This is done fifteen minutes on and fifteen off on the day of the vasectomy. If there is significant discomfort, the ice routine can be continued the next day.

A shower can be taken twenty-four hours out from vasectomy; however, avoid baths or swimming for several days.

Aspirin or Motrin (Ibuprofen) should be avoided, as they may cause an increase in bleeding. Your physician will probably write a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine for pain unless you have an allergy to this medication. Postop pain is usually minimal and most patients do not require much pain medication, but occasionally a patient may have significant pain for several days, requiring additional pain medication.

Heavy lifting or straining and strenuous exercise should be avoided for three to seven days, and then you may gauge activity according to your comfort level.

Avoid intercourse or ejaculation for at least seven days, then intercourse may be resumed with contraception only.

Remember, there are live sperm still present in the vas immediately after vasectomy, and you are not considered sterile until the semen specimen is cleared of sperm at six and twelve weeks postop. Use contraception until given the okay to have intercourse without contraception. You will be given specimen cups to collect the semen specimens in. The more ejaculations there are over the six to twelve week period, the more likely the semen specimens will be negative for sperm when checked.

Some patients develop antisperm antibodies after vasectomy. This correlates with an increase in atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in monkeys, but several studies have detected no increase of atherosclerosis in humans post vasectomy.

In the last few years, some researchers tried to show an increase correlation between vasectomy and prostate cancer. Numerous studies have failed to confirm this. The American Urological Association recommends that patients over forty who have had vasectomy twenty years previously should have an annual prostate exam. This is also recommended for any male over fifty, whether or not vasectomy has been performed.