There are several reasons to consider reversing a vasectomy. Perhaps your original reasons for having a vasectomy in the first place are no longer valid. After a few years your wife has decided that she really does want to hold a baby again. Perhaps you have had a divorce and remarried and your new wife wants a family. Perhaps you have been widowed and would like to start a new family. In some rare cases men feel some sort of discomfort after a vasectomy that shows up either right after or years after the original surgery. This can only be helped by vasectomy reversal surgery. Any of these are excellent reasons for reversing a vasectomy.
Another reason for reversing a vasectomy would be the loss of a child and the desire to have another one. Over five hundred thousand (500,000) men choose to have a vasectomy each year. Annually five percent of those will choose to reverse the surgery.
You will need to take the costs into account as vasectomy reversal surgery generally is not covered by health insurance. The surgery can cost between five and ten thousand ($5-10,000) dollars depending on the quality of the original vasectomy.
Success rates on reversing a vasectomy are generally high it can take years before sperm returns to the ejaculate. A reversal is considered a failure if semen does not return to the ejaculate within a year of the surgery. Current studies show that reversals performed closer to the original vasectomy are more likely to succeed. Success is also highly dependent on the quality of the original surgery. The most common failure is caused by a blockage in the tubes. After a vasectomy semen is still being produced and with no where to go antibodies are produced which can lead to damaged sperm later on.