It is a perfectly believable, perfectly acceptable fact that some men simply don't want kids. Some find kids impractical, some find kids annoying, and some just find kids to be a waste of time. Regardless of the reasons, there are just some men that are willing to go to great lengths to not have children. In a sort of twisted tradition, birth control has a tendency to be seen as the woman's responsibility, even though it can be argued that the male half of a coupling is more ?active? in this regard. Some men, however, have come to terms with their role in the conception process and have willingly undergone the penultimate birth control procedure available to the human male: the vasectomy.

In essence, the vasectomy is an almost final solution for male birth control. The procedure is relatively simple, with the whole thing basically involving the cutting or blocking of the male vasa deferentia. For those among you that didn't listen in biology class, the vasa deferentia are a pair of ducts that are found in all male mammals, including humans. They act as the muscle-like path that sperm cells take from testes to the urethra. In essence, this means that the sperm no longer has a path that can be used to exit the body, which means that they can't fertilize the female egg cell. The sperm, rather than being released, end up being absorbed by the body as nutrients. The procedure, in most cases, is perfectly reversible, which is good news for the guys who think they might change their mind about children.

Some men worry that such a drastic procedure for birth control might bring about negative effects on other aspects of their sexual desire. This is, in most cases, untrue. There have been reports that around 10% of men who have had the procedure performed on them have had diminished sexual desire, but most men have noticed no change. Reports on this aspect of the procedure vary, however, though no clear reason for this variation has been pinpointed. Male hormones, such as testosterone, continue to be produced because the testes have not been removed or altered, so the procedure does not result in hormonal imbalance. Any hormonal imbalance found in a person who has undergone a vasectomy is likely completely unrelated to the procedure. The ejaculation is also relatively unaffected, as only 10% of it is actually made up of released sperm.

It should be noted that the procedure, while reversible in some situations, is generally a permanent one. Most doctors tell anyone who asks that it cannot be reversed, as well as offering them alternative methods and options. One of the more popular methods for ensuring conception even after a vasectomy would be to freeze the sperm before the procedure, allowing them to be later used in artificial insemination. Another option for extreme birth control would be vasectomy's female counterpart, tubal ligation, though the latter is usually less popular than the former. Vasectomy is generally considered cheaper and requires a less invasive procedure than tubal ligation, though the difference in popularity between the two is not a wide gap.