Choosing Your Physician Wisely

The following are issues to consider before arranging a reversal. These are not meant as a substitute for medical advice, but as a tool to help you begin the search process for a vasectomy reversal doctor.

• Always ensure the surgeon is licensed to practice in your jurisdiction (i.e. state or province).
• Does the surgeon use an operating microscope to place his sutures when reconnecting the vas? If the surgeon does not it truly limits the accuracy of rejoining the tiny vas tube.
• Does the surgeon use single layer or double layer microscopic reversal? It appears that a majority of microsurgeons prefer the double layer microscopic reversal, but the independent success rates of achieving patency and pregnancy are really the ultimate measures of success of one's method.
• Did the surgeon obtain formal training to do microscopic vasectomy reversals, and what was the extent of this training? Was it a two-week course, or a two-year training program where he was exposed to two or three cases per week? An important designation to look for is whether the surgeon is Fellowship Trained and whether the surgeon has been recently published in peer reviewed journals for vasectomy reversal.
• How many microsurgical reversals has the surgeon actually performed within the last one, two and three years? Some of the more experienced surgeons are performing between one to three microsurgical reversals per week.
• How many microsurgical vasectomy reversals has the surgeon performed in his entire career?
• What are the surgeon's actual statistics for achieving patency following vasectomy reversals? Ask if the statistics reported in the literature obtained from the surgeon is actually the surgeon's own experience, rather than the experience of a group or a series of studies that the surgeon was not involved in or partially involved in.
• What are the surgeon's complication rates?
• Does the surgeon have a university appointment?