Planned Parenthood to offer free vasectomies to uninsured young men in mobile van called ‘The Nutcracker’

Planned Parenthood offers free vasectomies to uninsured young men, despite the fact that the procedure may not be as reversible as people think.

In October, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri (PPSLR) will perform 100 free vasectomies for uninsured and underinsured patients at three of its locations in honor of World Vasectomy Day.

It’s the third year that PPSLR will offer vasectomies, a 20- to 30-minute surgery performed by a doctor that blocks tiny tubes called the vas deferens in the scrotum to prevent sperm from leaving a man’s body and causing pregnancy.

Forty appointments will be available at the Central West End Health Center in St. Louis on Oct. 19. Thirty will be available in the town of Rolla on October 20 and 30 will be available in Springfield on October 21.

Dr. Esgar Guarin, a reproductive health physician, returns to the area with his mobile vasectomy trailer, which he calls “The Nutcracker.”

Google searches for both vasectomies and abortion pills soared after a draft for the Roe decision leaked in May 2022, and again when the court made it official on June 24

PPSLR’s doctors will use a minimally invasive procedure called a needle-and-scalpel-less vasectomy that requires no cuts or stitches and allows patients to go home the same day.

There is another type of vasectomy that does use a scalpel. To do this, a doctor will numb the scrotum with a local anesthetic and then make two small cuts in the skin on each side of your scrotum to reach the tubes that carry sperm from your testicles (the vas deferens).

Each tube is cut and a small piece is removed. The ends of the tubes are then closed, either by tying them down or sealing them using heat.

The cuts are sutured, usually with dissolvable sutures that will disappear on their own in about a week.

Dr. Guarin told Springfield News leader: ‘It’s worse to go to the dentist, I always tell my patients.’

Nils Seubold underwent a vasectomy for The Nutcracker last year. He had considered the procedure for some time, but decided to take the plunge when Roe v Wade was overturned.

He said, “I’d definitely have to say it’s a really good choice for people who already have a decision about where they’re going in life… it’s definitely not as scary as you might think.”

It’s a low-risk procedure, and a man who gets one will usually recover within a few days.

A vasectomy is over 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, while the contraceptive pill is about 91 percent effective.

After the US Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections when it was reversed Roe v Wade in June 2022, demand for vasectomies, a male form of birth control, skyrocketed in the US.

In October 2022, clinics in parts of the country said they were seeing up to four times as many patients coming for surgery compared to before the June ruling.

Planned Parenthood said it saw a 53 percent increase nationwide in traffic to vasectomy information on its website following the Roe v Wade reversal.

PPSLR performed 42 vasectomies in July 2022, compared to just ten in the same month the previous year.

Lawmakers responded to the growing demand. In 2024, a California law will go into effect to make vasectomies cheaper by allowing patients with private insurance to undergo the procedure at no cost, aside from monthly premiums.

Many men use the procedure to delay having children, and some try to reverse the procedure when they are ready to start a family.

Although the procedure can be reversed, experts consider it a permanent form of birth control.

About 90 percent of men who want to have their vasectomy reversed will be able to do so successfully. However, According to research, about 10 percent of men who try to restore their fertility will fail published in 2021.

About 300,000 men undergo vasectomy each year, and between three and 10 percent attempt to reverse the procedure. studies suggest.

Uninsured or underinsured patients can call or visit 314-531-7526 ppslr.org/vasectomy to make an appointment at De Notenkraker for October 2023.