IS IT HIP TO SNIP?: Salon.com on vasectomies, also via Family Scholars

...While there are no statistics about this subset of men just yet, there soon will be. For the first time ever, the government's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has asked men -- nearly 5,000 of them -- about their family planning and reproductive choices. Among the data expected to be released on Father's Day: how many men plan on remaining childless for good -- and how many of those men have gotten vasectomies to set that decision in stone.

Most likely, the numbers will be far from staggering. What is startling, though, is that this is the first time that the numbers will even exist. Until now, discussions about contraceptive use and desire for children have largely revolved around women. The NCHS has been collecting data on women's reproductive choices in the National Survey of Family Growth since the 1970s. It's taken 30 years for them to ask men the same questions. "This is very unique," says Gladys Martinez, associate director for science at NCHS. "It's the first time you get the man represented by himself." ...

Sterilized men who don't have children face criticism for being selfish, immature and shortsighted. "I've had someone tell me that it was wrong of me to make the choice when I was still a kid," says Ciaccio. "I've had people tell me that I've robbed my future wife the opportunity to be a mother. I don't think I can count the number of people who said I'll change my mind and it'll be too late." But here's the question that young men who have gotten vasectomies are asking: Why is it acceptable to make the permanent choice to have kids at a young age and not OK to make the permanent choice to not have kids? "The truth is, I put more thought and energy into not having kids than many people do into having them," says Ciaccio. "What's the worse scenario -- a man regretting his vasectomy or a man regretting accidental parenthood?"

There are always exceptions -- like the man one urologist recalled, who got a vasectomy after he and a bunch of drunken buddies decided they didn't want to get their girlfriends pregnant; he later visited the doctor requesting a reversal -- but the bulk of the childless men who opt for vasectomies seriously think through the consequences. A Scottish survey of 78 men and women who were voluntarily childless concluded: "The findings of this study suggest that voluntary childlessness is not an expression of neurosis or immaturity; rather, it is a complex decision of which the benefits are considered to outweigh the costs of social nonconformity."

According to Lunneborg's research, there are four major reasons men don't want children: They want the freedom to change jobs without financial obligations to children; they want time and space for personal development; they have never felt a need to have children and are happy as they are; and they don't want the responsibility of raising a child.

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posted by Eve at 8:05 PM | link

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