Geez, it's hard to believe it's been 15 years. Those of you who hesitate should spend a weekend with our teenager. It was the right decision when she was six months old and that hasn't changed a bit.
Our discussion went something like this:
"Wanna have another one? What if we had a boy this time? Compared to this one, how bad could the second kid be?"
"Boy or girl, what if they're even
worse than this one?!?"
"OK, good point. Never mind!"
Balboa Naval Hospital used to have mass v-briefs (so to speak)-- a dozen guys would file into the room looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes. ("Is this the right place?" "The right place for what?" "Uh, never mind...") I had to submit a special request because we were under the two-child requirement, but all reluctance disappeared when the corpsmen found out that they'd be keeping an officer from re-procreating.
As for the shaving, you just have to approach it with the right equipment (so to speak) and enthusiastic help. Spouse had a great time. The itching of regrowth was by far the worst part of the experience.
I don't know if this is the current practice, but I had a "local" anaesthetic. The downside is that I could still feel various tools grinding & grating as they were being applied, and you really don't want to smell the work of an electric cauterizer coming from that area of your anatomy. But it must have speeded my recovery because I took it easy for a day and then was back in action. No complications, no stitch problems, no side effects, and so far I'm still sterile.
In the first couple months after 9/11, when metal detectors were cranked to max sensitivity, it was a little difficult to convince the TSA screeners that I really did have staples down there. For most of a year I traveled through airports wearing just a t-shirt, shorts, & slippers. But they must've gotten tired of discussing the issue and dialed back the senstivity.
A vasectomy is an intensely personal decision, but I believe that it's unfair to expect the other spouse to bear the burden. Unless, of course, they decide not to have kids by you
or anyone else ever again.
No one believes me when I tell them, "That's nothing. I have a vasectomy scar longer than that."
You may be the first poster to have his picture-posting privileges suspended before you even get a chance to abuse them...