THE VASECTOMY BOOK: A Complete Guide to Decision Making

Complete, for a fact. Goldstein is a urologic microsurgeon (now investigating vasectomy reversal), Feldberg is a researcher who had a vasectomy that was reversed--and their combined experience means that nothing is left out. In the main, they address couples--but they also consider, exceptionally, the needs of single men. First, we're apprised of how the operation was developed (and its link to social issues: requests from reversals are now coming from young, single men who had vasectomies in the population-conscious Sixties); we learn exactly what the surgery entails and the nature of the patient's experience. Then Goldstein and Feldberg zero in on the potential problem areas. Enough data is available on psychological adjustment to sterilization (it involves a drastic change in self-image) and on the medical risks (from bruising to more serious circulatory disorders) for readers to make a rational, deliberate assessment of their own situations. (A questionnaire is provided, too, for couples to ponder together.) Especially helpful--and right up-to-date--are chapters comparing vasectomy to other birth-control methods (in effectiveness and risk) and on the new microsurgery techniques which make it possible, in certain cases, to successfully reverse the procedure. Goldstein and Feldberg mince no words: vasectomy is sterilization; it's permanent (reversibility should not be taken into account); it has definite physical and psychological side-effects--some of which we don't yet know enough about. But informed, considered decisions on whether or not to undergo the procedure can be made--with the help of this excellent guide.