Discussions

How many people use some sort of "back up" birth control after a vasectomy?  
 
In discussion with someone, I learned that there is a small chance (less than 1% if I remember correctly) that a vasectomy will fail years down the year. It made me wonder... how many "real-life" people are affected by that potential failure.

Well, unless one partner or another has their gonads removed (i.e. ovaries or testicles), there is always a chance of pregnancy. However, less than 1% is very small. But it could happen, which is why the published effectiveness rate is only 99pointsomething%.  
 
Let me put it another way... if you knew that a Mirena is 99% effective (the published rate), would you bother is a back-up method of birth control? Most people don't because they're comfortable with that 1% or less margin of error.  
 
It's unlikely most people know someone who is effected by vasectomy failure years after the fact (in the first 6 months that's a different story). According to published data, it only fails for about 15 out of about every 10,000 couples once the sperm count is nil. So yes, it happens, but I can't imagine too many people get worked up about it or take special precautions.

Your chances of waking up during surgery are about the same...would you still have surgery?

As a health care professional, I can tell you that the vast majority of couples don't use a 'back up' method once the follow up samples have been zero sperm count. There are also quite a few couples who don't use a back up method, even though he hasn't had his follow up samples done.