Vasectomy and pregnancy

Nurses General Nursing

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Now, before any of you start berating me, I already know we were pretty stupid. So, here it goes....

I had my son on Oct. 5th. My husband had his vasectomy 2 weeks later. He went for one follow up with the dr. and got the a-okay, but never went for the second follow up. I have been having all kinds of medical problems with bleeding, pain, etc. but now that I am finally feeling fairly regular with the bleeding (we are still doing tests to check everything) my period is late. I had the depo shot in the hospital but nothing since because he got the okay from his dr.

What do you think the chances are that I am pregnant again? I'm really worried about this! It's so hard for me to see the symptoms because I have had pelvic pain almost constantly since I had Bryce and with all the irregular bleeding, who the heck knows what is going on with my body? I am having Bryan pick up a HPT tomorrow if nothing happens by then!

BUT, what do you (the experts ;) ) think?

Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

When my DH had his, the urologist said nothing likes to grow back together more than that little bugger LOL Survival of the species I guess!

Good Luck!

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

don't quote me, but I read chances of post-vasectomy and tubal pregnancy are about 0.1% ----1 in 1000. so NOT nearly impossible, but unlikely. However, I know personally 3 gals who got pg post-vas, so it pays to check it OUT! Good luck! Re-anastomosis is uncommon in vas/tubals but NOT out the realm of possibility as you know! Hope the outcome is what you want it to be. Best wishes....

Specializes in Critical Care, Telemetry.

Did your husband provide post-procedure seminal fluid? If so & physician said A-OK - meaning test was completed & there were no spermies, then I wouldn't worry. If seminal fluid sample was not provided, then may not be so sure.

Thanks you two. We have always gotten pregnant very, very easily and what we were really afraid of is that ummm...how do i put this? he still had some active buggers that weren't out of his system yet. *sigh* we really, really cannot afford another one and taking the risk of sounding selfish, I would have to quit school again. I know that sounds bad but we really thought we had this under control this time.

I guess only time will tell. I could never get an abortion but if I am pregnant, it sure as heck would make things really hard around here!

Did your husband provide post-procedure seminal fluid? If so & physician said A-OK - meaning test was completed & there were no spermies then I wouldn't worry. If seminal fluid sample was not provided, then may not be so sure.[/quote']

yeah he did. That's why we have been "operating" on the assumption that everything was fine. Why would the dr. want to have a second appointment and double check the seminal fluid then? Any ideas?

Specializes in Urgent Care.

I worked at a clinic where a man had a vasectomy and his wife ended up pregnant. Turned out he had 3 vas deferens. It can happen, so make sure your man does his follow up sperm count! :)

In my opinion I defiantly think that you could be pregnant. I mean just because he had a caectomy doesn't mean there isn't a slight chance you could be especially since he had it only two weeks prior to you having sex. I mean I wish you the best of luck and I hope you get the outcome you want. I just know about 5 different women who got pregnant after their husband had a vasectomy. Oh and aren't you suppose to wait like a month of something before you have sex again anyway? I'm not sure. Make sure he follows up with his appointments though cause you don't want any loose swimmers!

In my opinion I defiantly think that you could be pregnant. I mean just because he had a caectomy doesn't mean there isn't a slight chance you could be especially since he had it only two weeks prior to you having sex. I mean I wish you the best of luck and I hope you get the outcome you want. I just know about 5 different women who got pregnant after their husband had a vasectomy. Oh and aren't you suppose to wait like a month of something before you have sex again anyway? I'm not sure. Make sure he follows up with his appointments though cause you don't want any loose swimmers!

Brandi..you must have mis-read my post (or did I type it wrong?) Anyways, we didn't have sex until ...hmmm....let's see.....not even sure but it was while my depo shot was still good and then he went to his dr. for the follow up a couple weeks later and everything was okay. (we didn't have sex in between...in fact, we barely have because of my pain and bleeding lately) This is sooo confusing! LOL!

Well CNM2B I hope everything works out for you! Keep us posted! By the way when are you taking the HPT?

I copied this from some men's forum about vasectomies. I would take the test asap just to put your mind at ease. I hope everything works out!!!

Residual Live Sperm and Resuming Sexual Activity

Once the patient feels comfortable, he can resume sexual activity, usually in about a week. During ejaculation, the patient may experience some discomfort in the groin and testicles at first due to the contraction of the vas deferens. This almost always diminishes as the tissues heal.

However, after the operation there are always some active sperm left in the semen for several months so the risk for pregnancy persists. Attempts to solve this problem have been unsuccessful to date. It is, therefore, essential that the patient and his partner continue to use other methods of birth control until his sperm count is zero. The patient is considered sterile only when there are no live or moving (motile) sperm in his semen. Fifteen to 20 ejaculations are required to clear the viable sperm from the reproductive system. One study indicated that about 10% of men were still producing functional sperm at six months, but all these men were sterile by eight months. In another study, the average time to complete sterility was about 27 weeks.

About a third of men experience a recurrence or persistence of sperm that have no ability to move (immotile) 12 weeks after surgery and, in one study, about 7% had persistently immotile sperm. Immotile sperm, however, cannot swim up the lady partsl canal and pose no danger for fertility. In rare cases, vasectomies have to be repeated because live sperm persisted in the semen. The risk for sperm surviving indefinitely is very low, however.

Well CNM2B I hope everything works out for you! Keep us posted! By the way when are you taking the HPT?

Thanks. Hopefully tomorrow. Would you believe our dollar store has one for $1 and I've used it with all my pregnancies...very accurate! LOL!

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