Searching for doctors.
Selecting a doctor to perform a vasectomy reversal can be stressful. The parts we're talking about repairing are so small! Like the size of a strand of hair. We wanted to make sure we found the best doctor, with no hidden costs.
The first thing we did was figure out what questions to ask the doctors:
- How long have you been doing reversals?
- How many reversals have you performed?
- What's your background (urology, surgeon, etc.)?
- Do you allow students to perform any portion of the surgery?
- What is your rate of success?
- How do you measure success?
- What type of complications are associated with reversals?
- What is the recovery time?
- Are there any work restrictions?
- How much does it cost? What's included in the cost (medication, anesthesia)?
- What payment options are available? Is there a cash discount?
- If we are coming from out of town/state, how long should we plan on staying?
There are so many doctors to choose from, so we wanted to ask as many questions as possible. We found out there are doctors performing vasectomy reversals that aren't urologists (that's not what you want!). My husband's vasectomy was only about three years old, so we were told the odds were in our favor. We still wanted to find someone who specialized in complicated reversals, just in case! You never know what you're going to get until you're in there.
After researching, emailing, and comparing our notes, we chose a wonderful doctor located in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Sheldon Marks, from the International Center for Vasectomy Reversal (ICVR). We were pretty certain we were going to choose ICVR, but the (free) phone consultation sealed the deal.