Cletus Roy Georges, MD offers professional insight into the male sterilization procedure known as a vasectomy.
A medical sterilization procedure for men who wish to permanently ensure against possible future pregnancies, a vasectomy is a surgery which involves cutting or blocking the two tubes known as the vas deferens. A urology specialist based in Orlando, Florida, Cletus Roy Georges, MD explains more about the procedure.
“A vasectomy is a relatively minor surgical procedure which renders a male patient permanently unable to make a female partner pregnant,” explains the urology specialist, “and involves cutting—or otherwise blocking—two tubes, known in medicine as the vas deferens so that sperm can no longer make its way into a man’s semen.”
Permanent and requiring surgery, modern vasectomy procedures are over 99% effective, according to Power to Decide, the campaign to prevent unplanned pregnancy. “The vasectomy operation itself takes around 30 minutes,” Dr. Georges explains. “A patient is given a local anesthetic before a urology specialist removes a small section of the vas deferens, usually before sealing the area with small clamps, one on either side,” he adds.
The punctures created, says Dr. Georges, are so tiny that stitches are not needed. “After the surgery, a patient should have someone available to drive them home safely,” adds the expert.
Pain, swelling, and bruising in the immediate area may follow, with any bruising typically having subsided within two weeks according to Dr. Georges. “Ensure plenty of rest in the hours or days which follow and most patients should be back to their normal activities within no time,” he continues, “although it is important to take things easy until everything is fully healed.”
Blood-thinning pain killers including aspirin and ketoprofen should be avoided in the week prior to undergoing the procedure. “Ibuprofen and naproxen can, however,” Dr. Georges explains, “be taken following the procedure, if necessary, but aspirin should be avoided for a further one week.”
“Most men,” he goes on, “can return to non-strenuous work within a couple of days, although if a patient is engaged in physical labor, for example, it’s vital that they talk with their urologist about when they can safely get back to work.”
Vasectomy, says Dr. Georges, is a permanent alternative to condoms and other predominantly female-focused birth control methods, including the birth control pill, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, and birth control shots, patches, and implants. “Furthermore,” he adds, wrapping up, “it’s among the safest, most effective forms of birth control currently available, hence its growing popularity among patients in the United States and globally.”
Cletus Roy Georges, MD graduated from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in zoology with a biomedical option in 1987. Georges subsequently attended Weill Cornell University Medical College in New York City, graduating in 1991 and completing his residency in urology at Chicago’s Northwestern University McGaw Medical Center in 1997. Shortly after that, urology physician Dr. Georges started his practice in Sebring, Florida before relocating to Orlando, where he remains settled today.
