Script

olivia (patient) walks into rosie (doctor)’s office*

Rosie: Hello, so what seems to be the problem with you today?

Olivia: well, I spoke to my mate recently and we were talking about family planning methods, he mentioned a vasectomy but I wasn’t too sure what it was and I was wondering what other information you could tell me about a vasectomy and what would be the best family planning method for me.

Rosie: well in a nutshell, a vasectomy is a type of family planning method which involves surgery if that is the path you want to go down. Now what this does is in your penis you have 2 tubes, one which goes from your bladder and the other one which goes from your testies, so what this surgery involves in cutting of and sealing your vas deferens tube which is the tube that carries semen to the urethra so that you can ejaculate.

Olivia: so if I was to get this surgery done, can I reverse it if say one day I still wanted to have kids?

Rosie: unfortunately, this surgery is permanent and irreversible. Because you are cutting through and sealing bits of your body off there is no way that you would be able to get it back.

Olviia: okay, so what are the risks of this surgery?

     Rosie: well of course there are the basic risks of any surgery, which are general things such as blood clots, heart attacks and irregular heartbeats etc. but specifically with a vasectomy there are possible risks of a condition called granuloma. Granuloma is a type of lump formed from the tissue of the scrotum. Mass of granulation tissue, is typically produced in response to infection, inflammation, or the presence of a foreign substance. This infection is generally caused by the leak of semen from the testicles and it can cause extreme sharp pain known as post vasectomy pain syndrome but don’t be too concerned as you have a 1 in 10 chance of this happening because most of our surgeries are successful.

     Olivia: okay, great thank you for your help, I might opt for an easier, reversible method but maybe consider it in the future.