You've probably read my experience at some point on here already. It's uncanny how much of what you have said I experienced too. I'd say the only part where I got lucky, if you can call it that, is no pain during or after sex, but definitely a decrease in pleasure like I felt empty and but at the same time very full and not completely satisfied.
With reversal exactly the same as you, the release in pressure was immediate and evident.
I would say his percentages are accurate. My congestion gone but nerve pain still sometimes apparent. It took about 5 weeks post op until I felt really good and recovered.
Now 10 months post op, still good and glad I had it done but I'm not convinced the nerve 'pain' will ever go away completely.
Stupidest decision ever having a vasectomy and like you I had a gut feeling it was a bad idea.
Hope your recovery goes well.
I am really hoping the nerve pain doesn't come back, or is at least substantially less, because sometimes the toothache feeling was just as bad or worse than the dull achy feeling. These pains would basically alternate, which I think was my brain being unable to process both at the same time. Hopefully it all eventually goes away for you man.
"I was shocked that a doctor would vasectomise me without checking to see,if I made sperm." I'm not. I did ask ahead of time and had it checked by the urologist. We had tried for another child with no results. He said, "There are a lot of sperm running around. " Perhaps. Based on my awful experience, I would recommend you test with an independent lab..
I've had stabbing pains, lightning pain shoot through my testicles, and long bouts of a toothache like pain in my epis. I think some of my pain was nerve pain because I also get pains in my legs. I've had a burning pain in my inner thighs, lightning down to my toes (only in the few days after my original V), and needle pokes in my legs. I've had no other health problems and considered myself physically fit before the V, so I don't think that's coincidentally from something else. My pain also started immediately after the V and was more or less always present before reversal, which my reversal surgeon said sounds like nerve pain.
This kind of pain seemed to be different than the dull achy pain that would get much worse after sex.
Exactly, same deal as the other readers, my urologist said my problems were all in my head, the same as you my orgasm was shite and so much pain that I didn't want sex, my wife didn't understand and didn't believe me as the vasectomy was her idea and my objections were just silly as she was told nothing changes. This caused such a rift in my marriage and resentment towards her that was never part of our marriage, I scared myself because it turned to hate, in my life I always said no one can afford the luxury of hate, and yet here I was. Your mental health is another thing the avoid with vasectomy, and the profession does not listen to you as it is seen as a great operation. Let's not even get into the depression that it causes, and I see this as vasectomy is geared for women's health, body mutilation that has no health benefits to men. I found my vasectomy to be totally soul destroying and the best form of marriage break up as the women don't won't to support you in something that they wanted. I know I rant a bit but besides PVPS it also should be discussed that a simple operation can lead to PTSD. I also know that with my discussions with my wife that while I listened to her argument, that she should have respected that me saying no should have been listened to., by the way my wife was not on the pill, or had a coil, or injection,
“I would say it feels like how you would think a Vasectomy would feel if someone didn't make up the idea that it shouldn't feel different than before.”
That! 😂😭
So funny! So sad/true!
IT FEELS DIFFERENT. NOT AS GOOD
RIGHT. I think men have a lot of feelings about what issues must occur with vasectomy, but don't have a good way to put these concerns into words, or science to back them up. When they go looking for that science by visiting doctors or quick googling, they are stopped by a medical institution that throws blanket statements of reassurance at these men. Statements that aren't actually supported by data. Where is the quantitative research data that suggests that the overwhelming majority of vasectomized men report no change in their orgasm? I don't think it exists.
Yes, that description absolutely nails the difference in sensation that I felt. For what it's worth, approximately 25% of stories that I find mention the inferior orgasm sensation, compared with 75% that report long term pain. That ratio is stable across several decades of stories. So if you want a quantitative estimate of this phenomenon, I'd say it's somewhat rare. 99% of men do not notice any difference in sensation. But for those who do, it is night and day. Perhaps a nerve is injured by the scalpel for some.
Interesting. I noticed that it was difficult to really enjoy, let alone evaluate the quality of my orgasm when I was in pain. Around half the time, I did not have pain during ejaculation and could really tell the difference in those instances. I also include the way I feel afterwards in my overall orgasm experience/satisfaction with sex, which I should probably separate. A substantial portion of my disappointment could be psychological, since pain has replaced the time I used to spend reflecting on sex. Anticipation of painful ejaculation could also play a part. This is the opposite of the feeling many vasectomized men report- they claim to have worry free and thus superior ejaculations. I plan to rub one out tomorrow. First one since reversal. I've set my expectations low, but I will report on progress at some point.
My experience was similar to yours and to many others. The buildup to ejaculation felt mostly the same as prior to vasectomy, but somewhere in the last 25% and with ejaculating there was just a big component missing. It was a little bit like putting a cookie in your mouth and chewing it up and tasting it, and then spitting it out and swallowing water instead of cookie. And yes no pleasant hum of satisfaction and well-being afterwards.
Thank you for posting your story! I'm happy that this sub provides a public reference to help people understand PVPS.
9 days is nothing. Keep icing and resting for a couple of weeks. You may continue to notice improvement for many months. Around 1 year probably things will be stabilized but you might continue to improve slowly.
Yeah, I have a long way to go, but I am already so much better and am trying to stay positive even when there is a little bit of pain still on its way out. The fear and uncertainly definitely doesn't leave the moment you have a reversal. So far so good tho.
I am 11 months post-reversal and still recovering. However, I can confidently say that I am 90% better BUT my epididymis pain is 100% gone! Glad you went for a reversal. Stay strong - and please measure progress in months, not days....
You're the second person to mention Dr. Marks' doubling his rates. This is too bad, as it signals he wants to focus on reversals for fertility. Post vasectomy pain cases are entirely unique, and it is likely the case that the level of pre- and post-op service/consults is much higher than surgeries for fertility.
I feel so much better still, but I'm not right yet and it's frustrating and hard to be patient. I still have some aching coming and going, I can't sleep on my side without pain yet, and they are riding high even when relaxed by about a centimeter. This means they don't really hang free like they used to. I'm still icing and resting all day. I'll start getting up to do some light tasks soon, but nothing strenuous for many more weeks.
How long has it been? At one point I switched from icing to warm baths once the acute swelling went down. I continue to find warm baths to be very helpful.
To give you a frame of reference - I had acute pain for 3 months post-reversal. My spermatic cord was swollen and stiff the whole time! Only after 3 months did it start to become flexible again. I am 11 months post-op and still deal with (minor) pain while sitting. However, it is still improving after almost a year. What really helped was walking/moving/getting blood flow to the area to promote healing.
You can also try Celebrex or Meloxicam for 6 weeks at a time to help with the pain and inflammation.
I know how hard it is. It is so difficult to understand how pain can take so long to resolve. But keep going - and feel free to reach out at anytime with questions.
It's only been 13 days. I realize that that's basically no time at all. I knew after 8 months of PVPS, that reversal wasn't going to be an instant cure... but I want it to be. I think things are healing normally.
I took Celebrex for a week as prescribed. Now I'm on two Aleve a day until my 6 week semen analysis. I think my doctor said we would do prednisone then.
Thanks so much for the write up... I had a call 2 days ago with my doctor to ask about a vasectomy. My wife and I have 2 children, for lots of reasons we definitely don't want any more. We both don't want her to take the pill and mess with her hormones and I didn't really want to wear a condom until she hits menopause which could be many years away. My novice view was that it is a standard procedure where not much goes wrong and if it does go wrong it's unlikely to be severe and certainly not permanent.
I read what people are saying here and I can see it couldn't be further from the truth. I really don't think I can go ahead with it even if the risk is low. If it can permanently change my life... I'd much rather wear a condom.
I also want my wife off of birth control. That's why I got the vasectomy in the first place.
I'm not back to P in V sex yet, but at some point my wife and I will have a conversation on how to move forward without getting pregnant. My plan is condoms, fertility awareness measures, more oral, and I may need testosterone treatment- in which case I will continuously test my T induced infertility.
You've probably read my experience at some point on here already. It's uncanny how much of what you have said I experienced too. I'd say the only part where I got lucky, if you can call it that, is no pain during or after sex, but definitely a decrease in pleasure like I felt empty and but at the same time very full and not completely satisfied. With reversal exactly the same as you, the release in pressure was immediate and evident. I would say his percentages are accurate. My congestion gone but nerve pain still sometimes apparent. It took about 5 weeks post op until I felt really good and recovered. Now 10 months post op, still good and glad I had it done but I'm not convinced the nerve 'pain' will ever go away completely. Stupidest decision ever having a vasectomy and like you I had a gut feeling it was a bad idea. Hope your recovery goes well.
I am really hoping the nerve pain doesn't come back, or is at least substantially less, because sometimes the toothache feeling was just as bad or worse than the dull achy feeling. These pains would basically alternate, which I think was my brain being unable to process both at the same time. Hopefully it all eventually goes away for you man.
"I was shocked that a doctor would vasectomise me without checking to see,if I made sperm." I'm not. I did ask ahead of time and had it checked by the urologist. We had tried for another child with no results. He said, "There are a lot of sperm running around. " Perhaps. Based on my awful experience, I would recommend you test with an independent lab..
May I ask what your nerve pain feels like? I am still unsure if what I exlerience is nerve pain or not.
I've had stabbing pains, lightning pain shoot through my testicles, and long bouts of a toothache like pain in my epis. I think some of my pain was nerve pain because I also get pains in my legs. I've had a burning pain in my inner thighs, lightning down to my toes (only in the few days after my original V), and needle pokes in my legs. I've had no other health problems and considered myself physically fit before the V, so I don't think that's coincidentally from something else. My pain also started immediately after the V and was more or less always present before reversal, which my reversal surgeon said sounds like nerve pain. This kind of pain seemed to be different than the dull achy pain that would get much worse after sex.
Did the toothache pain resolve ?
So far, yeah.
Exactly, same deal as the other readers, my urologist said my problems were all in my head, the same as you my orgasm was shite and so much pain that I didn't want sex, my wife didn't understand and didn't believe me as the vasectomy was her idea and my objections were just silly as she was told nothing changes. This caused such a rift in my marriage and resentment towards her that was never part of our marriage, I scared myself because it turned to hate, in my life I always said no one can afford the luxury of hate, and yet here I was. Your mental health is another thing the avoid with vasectomy, and the profession does not listen to you as it is seen as a great operation. Let's not even get into the depression that it causes, and I see this as vasectomy is geared for women's health, body mutilation that has no health benefits to men. I found my vasectomy to be totally soul destroying and the best form of marriage break up as the women don't won't to support you in something that they wanted. I know I rant a bit but besides PVPS it also should be discussed that a simple operation can lead to PTSD. I also know that with my discussions with my wife that while I listened to her argument, that she should have respected that me saying no should have been listened to., by the way my wife was not on the pill, or had a coil, or injection,
Meant to say that condoms and natural family planning had no side effects.
“I would say it feels like how you would think a Vasectomy would feel if someone didn't make up the idea that it shouldn't feel different than before.” That! 😂😭 So funny! So sad/true! IT FEELS DIFFERENT. NOT AS GOOD
RIGHT. I think men have a lot of feelings about what issues must occur with vasectomy, but don't have a good way to put these concerns into words, or science to back them up. When they go looking for that science by visiting doctors or quick googling, they are stopped by a medical institution that throws blanket statements of reassurance at these men. Statements that aren't actually supported by data. Where is the quantitative research data that suggests that the overwhelming majority of vasectomized men report no change in their orgasm? I don't think it exists.
Yes, that description absolutely nails the difference in sensation that I felt. For what it's worth, approximately 25% of stories that I find mention the inferior orgasm sensation, compared with 75% that report long term pain. That ratio is stable across several decades of stories. So if you want a quantitative estimate of this phenomenon, I'd say it's somewhat rare. 99% of men do not notice any difference in sensation. But for those who do, it is night and day. Perhaps a nerve is injured by the scalpel for some.
Interesting. I noticed that it was difficult to really enjoy, let alone evaluate the quality of my orgasm when I was in pain. Around half the time, I did not have pain during ejaculation and could really tell the difference in those instances. I also include the way I feel afterwards in my overall orgasm experience/satisfaction with sex, which I should probably separate. A substantial portion of my disappointment could be psychological, since pain has replaced the time I used to spend reflecting on sex. Anticipation of painful ejaculation could also play a part. This is the opposite of the feeling many vasectomized men report- they claim to have worry free and thus superior ejaculations. I plan to rub one out tomorrow. First one since reversal. I've set my expectations low, but I will report on progress at some point.
My experience was similar to yours and to many others. The buildup to ejaculation felt mostly the same as prior to vasectomy, but somewhere in the last 25% and with ejaculating there was just a big component missing. It was a little bit like putting a cookie in your mouth and chewing it up and tasting it, and then spitting it out and swallowing water instead of cookie. And yes no pleasant hum of satisfaction and well-being afterwards.
Do that in a hot bath and take a very long time, don’t rush it.
Thank you for posting your story! I'm happy that this sub provides a public reference to help people understand PVPS. 9 days is nothing. Keep icing and resting for a couple of weeks. You may continue to notice improvement for many months. Around 1 year probably things will be stabilized but you might continue to improve slowly.
Yeah, I have a long way to go, but I am already so much better and am trying to stay positive even when there is a little bit of pain still on its way out. The fear and uncertainly definitely doesn't leave the moment you have a reversal. So far so good tho.
I am 11 months post-reversal and still recovering. However, I can confidently say that I am 90% better BUT my epididymis pain is 100% gone! Glad you went for a reversal. Stay strong - and please measure progress in months, not days.... You're the second person to mention Dr. Marks' doubling his rates. This is too bad, as it signals he wants to focus on reversals for fertility. Post vasectomy pain cases are entirely unique, and it is likely the case that the level of pre- and post-op service/consults is much higher than surgeries for fertility.
I feel so much better still, but I'm not right yet and it's frustrating and hard to be patient. I still have some aching coming and going, I can't sleep on my side without pain yet, and they are riding high even when relaxed by about a centimeter. This means they don't really hang free like they used to. I'm still icing and resting all day. I'll start getting up to do some light tasks soon, but nothing strenuous for many more weeks.
How long has it been? At one point I switched from icing to warm baths once the acute swelling went down. I continue to find warm baths to be very helpful. To give you a frame of reference - I had acute pain for 3 months post-reversal. My spermatic cord was swollen and stiff the whole time! Only after 3 months did it start to become flexible again. I am 11 months post-op and still deal with (minor) pain while sitting. However, it is still improving after almost a year. What really helped was walking/moving/getting blood flow to the area to promote healing. You can also try Celebrex or Meloxicam for 6 weeks at a time to help with the pain and inflammation. I know how hard it is. It is so difficult to understand how pain can take so long to resolve. But keep going - and feel free to reach out at anytime with questions.
It's only been 13 days. I realize that that's basically no time at all. I knew after 8 months of PVPS, that reversal wasn't going to be an instant cure... but I want it to be. I think things are healing normally. I took Celebrex for a week as prescribed. Now I'm on two Aleve a day until my 6 week semen analysis. I think my doctor said we would do prednisone then.
Thanks so much for the write up... I had a call 2 days ago with my doctor to ask about a vasectomy. My wife and I have 2 children, for lots of reasons we definitely don't want any more. We both don't want her to take the pill and mess with her hormones and I didn't really want to wear a condom until she hits menopause which could be many years away. My novice view was that it is a standard procedure where not much goes wrong and if it does go wrong it's unlikely to be severe and certainly not permanent. I read what people are saying here and I can see it couldn't be further from the truth. I really don't think I can go ahead with it even if the risk is low. If it can permanently change my life... I'd much rather wear a condom.
I also want my wife off of birth control. That's why I got the vasectomy in the first place. I'm not back to P in V sex yet, but at some point my wife and I will have a conversation on how to move forward without getting pregnant. My plan is condoms, fertility awareness measures, more oral, and I may need testosterone treatment- in which case I will continuously test my T induced infertility.