Vasectomy Reversal Series Part 1: Why We Got One

Back in 2018, just months after having my second traumatic birth, Jason and I agreed that if we tried to have another child, I would likely not make it. Without much thought, we scheduled a vasectomy.

I remember waiting in the car playing with Landon & Aria as Jason had his procedure done. It was quick and his recovery wasn’t bad at all. We felt confident that we made the right decision for our family and carried on with our lives.

It wasn’t until I was a couple months into starting Farm and Fellowship that I felt God nudge me to trust Him in all ways - including the size of our family.

As with all nudges, I shared what God was calling me to do with Jason and he was very adamant that he would not move forward with a reversal surgery - but was open to finding ways to naturally encourage his body to heal the vasectomy.

Since I wasn’t about to force Jason into a surgery, we consulted with our holistic team and landed on incorporating the OSP vitamins, ambertose (for both of us) and black cumin seed oil into Jason’s daily routine. We figured if nothing else, this new practice would at the bare minimum increase our health and we were moving towards being more obedient with our family size. Win - win.

That lasted for a few months until I became discouraged. I prayed to God, “please change Jason’s heart on having the surgery if it’s your will, otherwise - please remove this desire you’ve placed on my heart.”  For months, I was content and felt no need to move forward with any action.

It wasn’t until almost a year later that our marriage hit a rocky spot. I had increased my working hours to keep up with the rapid growth on social media, Jason had increased his working hours due to the intensity of his jobs increasing with large scaled remodels, and our children were needing us in such different ways. We found that we had hardly any time for each other and that was taking a toll on our marriage. I should note that when Jason and I disagree, it’s few and far between. We are pretty level headed and can navigate keeping things relaxed. During this time, there was more tension in our home than we had experienced in the previous 7 years of our marriage. It was draining and we knew something had to give.

One day we sat down after putting the kids to bed and shared about the things that we resented in our marriage. Out of nowhere, the words “I resent that we aren’t trusting God with our family size out of fear of my health and finances” poured out of my mouth. When I tell you that it was the Holy Spirit speaking through me - I am not saying that lightly. I had zero thoughts about this going into our conversation and then POOF out of my mouth it flowed.

Without skipping a beat, Jason said, “ok, let’s schedule a reversal.”

Oh to be a fly on that wall and see the shock on my face. I’m pretty sure my jaw had to be scooped up off of the floor following his response!

What gives? Why did he change his mind all of a sudden? He says it was the Holy Spirit nudging him to be obedient.

Now before you think we are all “everyone has to not use any birth control and have endless babies no matter what” we aren’t…

But for our family, we felt it was very clear that God was placing this calling on our hearts. That day we shared our fears, concerns, thoughts and whatever else felt right and we could both feel a huge weight lifted off of our shoulders.

Over the next few days our eyes were opened to the unspoken dangers and of vasectomies that were never shared with us and they solidified our thoughts.

Did you know that men who have vasectomies often experience pain and discomfort years after their procedure. When you think about it - it makes sense…. The surgery itself cuts off the two vasdefrins which allow sperm to flow through and takes away the past for sperm to leave the body but the body doesn’t stop producing sperm. So where does this sperm go? Shockingly - to the blood system, where it is seen as an intruder because God didn’t design the male body to have sperm in the blood system… so an inflammatory response can occur to fight the misplaced sperm. 

Additionally, the risk of prostate cancer later in life goes up astronomically for men once they’ve had a vasectomy. Why don’t doctors disclose this information when the surgery is performed?! Sadly, when urologists were polled - 90% of them said they would still perform these vasectomies despite the knowledge of what comes post vasectomy.  Had we known better, we wouldn’t have moved forward with the vasectomy.

I see you over there contemplating how natural family planning would work - and I’m here to shed light on lots of things in this vasectomy series that will put your mind at ease. There are ways to prevent pregnancy without getting your tubes tied or having a vasectomy 😉

Looking at our calendars and our budgets, the timing wasn’t ideal - but we knew we had to do it sooner rather than later now that Jason’s health was considered, and God would make a way - so we began a our hunt for a reversal specialist - naively thinking there would be one local to us…