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The product being developed as an alternative to vasectomy is called Vasalgel (...that name....).
I remember Wired putting out a pretty thorough article on it a while back.<EDIT>That article was actually on RISUG, which while still a polymer deposit claimed to maim sperm rather than blocking it.</EDIT>
When this hits the market I will seriously be considering it. Unprotected sex in a monogamous relationship is wonderful and it would be nice to take hormonal solutions out of the equation to make that possible with reduced risk of pregnancy.
https://www.parsemusfoundation.org/projects/vasalgel/



Per the FAQ:

We want to get Vasalgel on the market as soon as possible, but all the proper efficacy and safety testing needs to be completed. Vasalgel is currently undergoing animal testing, product qualification and safety testing. Human trials are expected to start in 2016 (small trial) and 2017 (larger trials). If everything goes well and with enough public support, we hope to get Vasalgel on the market as early as 2018.

<EDIT> It seems reversibility studies have not been started yet </EDIT>

My ex was a big wimp, so I got my tubes clamped after our second child was born. My primary care physician, likely because I told her I have multiple partners, thinks it is funny to tell me stories about other older female patients who think they are going through menopause, but then discover that they are pregnant. There is a very, very slim chance of clamps failing after decades of use, so I coached myself to always inquire about "supplies" with a new partner. The possibility of contracting AIDS is very slim, yet frightening, but the possibility of finding oneself pregnant, living in a camper, and uncertain about the paternity of your love-lump, at the age of 51, well, that is in another realm altogether.

I buy $3 per piece pregnancy tests and then pee on one every two months or so. I figure I'm not 7 to 9 months pregnant ("I thought I had appendicitis, but I was having a baby!"- situations) if I:

1. Use birth control properly
2. Have my normal and regular periods
3. Have had a negative pregnancy test result in the last two months...

If I turn out to be nine months pregnant anyway, at least I'll have a pretty good story to tell

PS. I really really really don't want to be pregnant, I really don't want to bring children into this world. So this is my strategy to prevent that.

@DutchGirl: Good strategy. I had one light period after conceiving my son due to failure of contraceptive sponge, so I was well into the completely exhausted and vomiting at the sight of food stage before I made the good decision to have the baby and the bad decision to marry the father. Of course, the fact that I love my DS28 and also very much like him as an individual, is the emotional reason why I say it was a good decision, but the rational reason why I say it was a good decision is that I am somebody who would have eventually chosen to have kids anyways, and contrary to current popular opinion on the matter, I think if you are going to have kids it is better to start having them and finish having them when you are young. My reasons are you will have more younger relatives available to help you, you will not be so ego engaged in parenting and less likely to hover, you will be left with a wide expanse of healthy mid-life years to do with as you please once project of parenting is wrapped up, and it is far less likely that you will have to suffer through hassle and expense of fertility treatment.

Well, only you know your mind. Me, I always knew I didn't want kids. I tried to get snipped at 22, while in the army. Once again, free medical is worth every penny. Denied. Policy was that only after demonstrating that my children were placing undue financial burden, would I be authorized to receive a vasectomy.

I did it at 35, fully insured. Cost me $20 copay, and a bad weekend.

My dad had one after 4 kids. At the birth of my first nephew, he asked when I was going to get him grandkids.

"Dad, I don't plan to have kids."

"Well, I didn't plan to have kids, either. Sometimes things just happen."

" No Dad, you didn't plan to have kids. I plan to not have kids. There is a world of difference. I had my vasectomy Thursday. "

I'm 45 now. One of my criteria for online dating was no kids, and not wanting kids. My wife sees kids in public, and whispers "thank you".

For me, breeder-need was a deal breaker. That is how I feel on the subject. I wasn't going to get in a relationship with a potential mommy wannabe. That eliminates most women from my dating pool, and I was OK with that.

Young or not, you know your mind. If you don't want kids at this point, fine, use a condom. But if you know you don't want kids, now or ever, well, certainty is worth the price of admission.

Speaking of certainty, there is variation of technique. Snip, section, cauterized, and knotted. My Dr removed a section, cauterized each end, then knotted them. As he put it " you may have heard this operation is reversible, not if I do it."

And still I had swimmers 6 weeks later. This resolved itself by the follow up test, 6 months later.

Riggerjack wrote: As he put it " you may have heard this operation is reversible, not if I do it.

Ha. That's some badass language from a doctor.

Yeah. He didn't mince words. We got along very well. He was my regular MD before he moved away.

Hopefully, he didn't mince anything.

OP: You could get a vasectomy if that's what you want. If there's even a 1% chance you might change your mind about having kids, you could also bank your sperm. After all, it's in the best condition it's ever going to be right now. If you don't want to pay for that and your parents are like most, they'll probably be happy to foot the bill.

I want to be like the director of a sperm bank in England, who just used his own for most of the people who wanted some. Yeah he was ripping them off, but wow, hundreds of kids and he didn't have to raise them. He wins the natural selection game this round!

I don't remember where I read about the story, and I'm fuzzy on the details. I am pretty good at thinking about natural selection, and that story obviously impressed me.

Cecil Jacobson? An American fertility doctor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Jacobson

enigmaT120 wrote:I want to be like the director of a sperm bank in England, who just used his own for most of the people who wanted some. Yeah he was ripping them off, but wow, hundreds of kids and he didn't have to raise them. He wins the natural selection game this round!

I don't remember where I read about the story, and I'm fuzzy on the details. I am pretty good at thinking about natural selection, and that story obviously impressed me.

brute thinks that's a great example of winning the wrong game.

DutchGirl wrote:Cecil Jacobson? An American fertility doctor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Jacobson

On the bright side, he's probably won't get prostate cancer.

DutchGirl wrote:Cecil Jacobson? An American fertility doctor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Jacobson

And here I was trying to blame an Englishman! As many as 75, huh?

I like this line: "He could not account for the incident in which his own sperm was used in place of the patient's husband's, other than to suggest cross-contamination in the laboratory."

Brute, natural selection is the only game! I played to lose.

Augustus wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG2bTZYinwE

From the description: "As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits."

No, that is never how natural selection works. We 'splain it that way, but it's always been about who can get his or her genes propagated.

Is that a full movie? It was funny, the part I saw. I'll have to look for it.

It is from a full movie, but that's just a small clip. The movie is "Idiocracy". It's good and you should watch it. It's quite poorly made, but it's funny and the point of the movie is good.

Over the last few years it has become more and more culturally relevant and more frequently referenced

watching Idiocracy is a civic duty. this is where brute first learned about electrolytes!

So it sounds like condoms are a better bet since you still need to wear one anyway. Even in a relationship you never know. Ask the lady who's cheating husband gave her HIV/AIDS...

See this: https://www.optionsforsexualhealth.org/ ... ectiveness

In real life (planned/attempted) use, condoms are much less effective than vasectomies, tube-tying, or IUDs.