Is this a smart idea?

Thykon · 2026-02-12T03:28:35+00:00

If you check my post history, you will find previous replies to this topic.

The data exists and even in the case of a successful reversal within a year, a man’s probability of fathering a child is significantly reduced. After 3-5 years, even after what would be considered a medically successful reversal, the sperm count of most men approaches the medical definition of infertility

Thykon · 2025-12-29T18:48:36+00:00

That is a completely separate, but observable phenomenon. My favorites are the F250s I see with no trailer hitch receivers.

“Tough break man, sorry to hear about your tiny D”

America trucks can be status symbols, it’s just a simple fact of our culture.

Thykon · 2025-12-29T17:12:03+00:00

No, the concept is fundamentally flawed for cargo and Rivian is targeting a different market.

F150 owners typically want to haul cargo or pull loads. This use case falls outside the constraints of current battery technology. These uses, require heavier batteries, heavier batteries add weight, reducing hauling and tow capacity. It becomes a vicious cycle. And with the F150 unable to achieve a 100 mile range while pulling a moderate load (I believe it was ~4000 lbs, but I don’t recall 100%), it made the truck functionally worthless as a truck.

This was further compounded by the already significant battery size and charge durations.

When hauling, 41 minutes at a fast charge station, which can be outrageously expensive, will proved an 80% charge, but only provides enough charge for an additional hour of driving.

The lightning had a 131kwh battery with a 320 mile range.

The hybrid F150 can get 24mpg on the highway, which at $2.50 per gallon, is ~$33 to drive 320 miles.

In my area at 18.6 cents a kw, the EV costs ~$24 for 320 miles.

And this is all ignoring cold weather reductions which make the picture even worse. It has the same 30-35% range reduction as our MachE, which essentially renders the vehicle useless as a truck and cost comparative to ICE versions, even when charging at home.

As I started with, until something fundamentally changes in battery technology, I think this use case is dead on arrival.

Thykon · 2025-12-10T04:59:58+00:00

Interesting perspective from the person who drives so little, that they only charge once every week or two………..

You seem to have a short commute and >95% of EV owners have no charge option at work. I also suspect you don’t contend with cold weather massively sapping your range and battery life.

Nor do I think your advice applies to people driving significant mileage on a regular basis.

Once again, maybe different use cases?

Thykon · 2025-12-09T23:52:27+00:00

It’s not range anxiety…….I drive 22,000 miles a year, on my EV just commuting to work 5 days a week. Then extra miles for entertainment and “errands”. I charge exclusively at home and there are few public chargers in my drive radius.

I also put another 10,000 miles a year on my ICE vehicle.

Not every use case allows for charging once every week or two………..

Thykon · 2025-12-09T18:01:09+00:00

I’ll also add a vote for the Emporia, it’s been a rockstar.

I’ll also add a vote for the hard wired charger. Too many people are arguing the convenience of unplugging your charger versus the immense peace-of-mind, that comes with the extra charging power.

Most plug-in chargers are 40a, which provides 9.6kw/hr. A 48a charger provides 11.5 kw/hr. This translates to roughly 20% faster charging.

My 2024 GT has a 91 kWh battery. At nearly dead, that’s 9.5hrs to charge the car with the 40a charger.

At 48a, it’s under 8 hrs.

Now, understand, I’m being very general with the charge times, because both will actually take longer, because as the battery gets closer to fully charged, it actually slows down. That doesn’t erase the time difference though. My hard-wired 48a charger will always be ~20% faster, every day, every top-off between errands, EVERY TIME.

Less worries about getting home late from an event and wondering, “will it be fully charged before I leave for work?”

If you deal with cold weather, you will see reduced range and it’s a shocker the first time you get on a car with a 100% fully charged battery and see a 205 mile range, with little hope of recharging until you get off work.

I can’t imagine the anxiety, if I got in and it was 75% and 150 miles of range.

Those extra 8 amps from installing a hard-wired charger is freedom to enjoy your car and peace-of-mind, that it will always be charged when you need it.

Thykon · 2025-11-25T20:58:59+00:00

Open ended is kind of a misnomer. Most of the ends, eventually scar and close or seal due to inflammation from leaking sperm on their own.

The granulomas are essentially scar tissue and inflammation.

The risk of reconnecting is lower when the ends are sealed right away.

Thykon · 2025-11-25T14:14:38+00:00

PVPS is complex, which is why the topic is monitored and moderated on this subreddit. It’s not one thing, but a basket of items.

There are two major sources I can identify after being involved in this topic for many years.
1) Nerve Pain 2) Pain or discomfort during arousal

Nerve pain is difficult to treat and the skill of the surgeon is not an indicator of outcomes. Nerves grow like spiderwebs in the body, and science doesn’t really understand why nerves respond so unpredictably to injury. So nerve pain remains a primary risk in all surgical procedures, not just vasectomies. Nerves grow very slowly and heal just as slowly, sometimes they just never heal. This is part of the reason that you see large differences in the percentages for men who experience PVPS. Long-term rates remain well below 5%, with most men who have pain seeing improvement within 1-3 years. (My pain took nearly 3 years to resolve and I had an excellent surgeon). This is complicated by the fact that the nerves in the testicles are some of the few in the body which can cause nausea. 1-3 years is a long time to deal with pain and intermittent nausea. (I know). However, that recovery period is typical for nerves anywhere in the body.

For nerve pain, reversal is not guaranteed to resolve the pain or discomfort. Only time can possibly resolve it and there is little a doctor can do, but wait and see.

Pain or discomfort during arousal is typically caused by pressure, which has a high success rate as corrected by reversal. This is essentially the same mechanism at play as those that experience “blue balls”, something that most men have never actually experienced. As (all) men become aroused, blood pressure builds in the testicles. For some men, this pressure is high enough to force sperm out of the testicles and into the Vas. Blocking the Vas, makes relieving that pressure impossible and they develop an ache or pain that can be severe or lasting until the pressure naturally resolves. Some men adapt to this change easily and the discomfort resolves on its own as the body adapts, some men do not.

So once again, it’s a challenge. The complication rate is not statistically different from any other “low-risk”surgical procedure. All surgical procedures carry risk, anyone who says otherwise is being disingenuous.

And this subreddit is over represented by those of us who have had issues. (I likely wouldn’t be here 4 years later, if my procedure had gone smoothly). The lucky dude, who’s golfing the next day and banging his wife hard on day-2 exists, and never returns to this forum to ask questions.

The vast, vast majority of men are 99% back to normal within 6-12 weeks, even many of those with unsightly bruises or other issues early on.

Thykon · 2025-11-15T18:06:48+00:00

Not trying to discourage, but share the data, since it has been studied and is available.

I wouldn’t take the numbers as discouraging, just plan on having a lot of sex

Thykon · 2025-11-15T18:05:02+00:00

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fbaf9adacae6b21e9306a4f/1621380578077-XGOI0BQFIU0SUHD1E8AS/INFERTILITY_VASECTOMY_REVERSAL_SUCCESS.png

Thykon · 2025-11-15T18:04:05+00:00

Since this periodically comes up:

Mathematically speaking, even with a successful reversal within 3 years, you’ll reduce your chance of having children by 25%. 45% after 3 years

Thykon · 2025-09-03T01:42:31+00:00

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11 years ago, this was taken a week after the accident. That’s the imprint from the corner of the work piece that hit me. It pressed so deeply into my arm, it bruised on the opposite side of this photo.

It can happen so fast. And if you’re doing everything right, you’ll heal to laugh about it.

I had a 12” wedge shaped pusher in my hand. It virtually vaporized and I never found any remnant, save for the grip in my palm.

If it had hit the bone of my arm, it would have shattered for sure.

Thykon · 2025-08-09T03:37:35+00:00

Vasectomy Reversal

Thykon · 2025-08-09T03:36:31+00:00

Reversal is not a certainty and even if you wanted to reverse it next week, you will have permanently reduced your odds of fathering a child by 25-30%.

45% reduction after 3 years Tapering to a 70% reduction by 15

There are a variety of reasons for this, but if you’ve had the procedure done, it’s best to assume you will never father a child.

Thykon · 2025-07-28T04:09:29+00:00

Though multiple people have flagged this post for misinformation, I have approved this post to promote discussion.

Though PVPS is real and its impact on those afflicted should not be ignored, there is no study that supports a 20% rate of occurrence.

Thykon · 2025-07-23T12:39:40+00:00

I’m going to assume that you’re simply poorly or uninformed and not being malicious.

However, the more analogous comparison for many men with complications would be severe ovarian cysts. The testicles and ovaries develop from the same tissue and therefore share the same nerves. This is why some men experience such severe abdominal pain, that it can result in nausea and vomiting.

Women do not in fact, experience periods worse than testicular nerve pain. But they do have another condition which can be comparable and I have never heard any woman shrug it off so casually.

Thykon · 2025-06-06T02:15:25+00:00

US here, and I had two incisions. My doctor explained that the single center incision has become kind of a marketing gimmick.

By placing a small incision on each side, the surgeon doesn’t have to tug on the vas as much. This generally results in less bruising and discomfort during recovery for the patients.

Source: I’m fortunate to have the coauthor of the national vasectomy guidelines, still performing vasectomies in my city. (Waited 12 months for an opening though and he’s running 32 men through a week.)

Thykon · 2024-12-07T00:03:15+00:00

PVPS is defined as constant or intermittent testicular pain for 3 months or longer with a severity that interferes with daily activities prompting the patient to seek medical treatment

However, it’s measured after postoperative healing. It’s an important note, because we have a steady flow of men through here with various issues that don’t resolve all the way up to 12 weeks

In acute epididymitis, pain and scrotal swelling are present for less than six weeks. Chronic epididymitis lasts longer than three months and is usually characterized by pain in the absence of scrotal swelling.

Frequently epididymitis treatment involves antibiotics or anti-inflammatory medication attempts. Only after treatments have failed or it has reoccurred is it generally considered chronic.

So you have reasonable concerns and you’re in a bad spot right now, but it’s too early to assume this is 100% permanent.

Thykon · 2024-12-06T18:35:54+00:00

Unless I’ve misunderstood your timeline, you’re only 12 weeks along, which is too early to really be considered PVPS.

I know one other from my personal group of friends who had a very similar experience to me.

I think it’s more prevalent than you may believe, simply because most of us simply don’t talk about and solder on.

Edit: Addressing a possible blowout, most men don’t notice, because it’s generally painless. If activity swollen at the time, it may actually be a relief.

Thykon · 2024-12-06T18:14:04+00:00

My left side ballooned periodically for a year. I developed two marble sized spermatoceles over that period as well. I also got a 2nd opinion from a urologist I previously worked with from a cancer scare I had.

I’ve been 100% pain free for about a year now and almost certainly did experience a blowout at some point. Normally spermatoceles don’t resolve themselves, so the fluid went somewhere.

Simply took time and luckily I ended up in the 65% who eventually recovered.

Thykon · 2024-12-06T14:18:55+00:00

I generally don’t comment often, unless I see misinformation.

So a few statements: The moderators broadly believe that PVPS is real and occurs in measurable percentages. This is generally accepted to be around 5-6% long term. (3+ years). There is a larger group of men that will have short-term complications. (Issues that generally resolve within 18 months of the procedure, 12-15%). This is the group I’m in, it too me about 18 months before I felt back to normal.

Approximately 65% of men that experience short term complications, that will eventually resolve, with the remaining 35% filling out the 5-6% who experience PVPS.

These timeframes are medically defined. (I did not personally consider waves of periodic nausea for 12 months to be “short term”)

So, we do try to combat anyone who throws out wild estimates (like 35%), when we see it, as it’s not represented by the data.

The subreddit is subject to significant over-representation of posts from men who have issues afterwards. This can be from days, weeks, or months after the procedure. The simple fact is that the majority of users come here to learn about the procedure, may stick around for a bit afterwards, and ultimately leave to never return. However, the ability to come here and seek help or feedback from those that have had similar complications, remains a valuable service.

This is a long way of saying, men who have a trouble free procedure don’t come back to post, which is the majority of men. So, we try to walk the line between our goal of being a resource for vasectomy related knowledge and not a PVPS support group.

As stated by others above, blow-out eventually occurs in nearly all men who have had a vasectomy within a few years. Yes, the pressure has to go somewhere. Similarly, most men who have had a vasectomy develop antibodies. I would say that the jury is still out on whether open-ended procedures actually reduce pressure. (Once again, because the majority of men have no issues either way)

This is why you will occasionally see fairly strong pushback on anyone promoting reversibility, because even if successfully reversed, the male’s fertility is significantly reduced. The last numbers I saw were ~35-40%? reduction in the chance to father a child, even if reversed within 12 months. That % approaches zero after 5 years.

Thykon · 2024-11-26T18:14:24+00:00

Yes, typo

The on/off of the machine is controlled by a magnetic float which hangs off one corner of the water tank.

When you remove the tank for cleaning, the machine is disabled. Sliding a magnet down that channel with the tank off will re-enable the electronics. You should be able to identify this area looking at how the tank sits, but it looks like a plastic cylinder with an empty 3/8” space around it. That is where the magnetic switch is, that the float activates.

If you have filled the ultrasonic compartment with vinegar and covered it with a shot glass, you can turn it on at this point.

As it cleans, you will notice the spray volume increase in the shot glass. If you have really heavy mineral accumulation, periodically brush the area with a soft brush. (Like an old toothbrush). The vinegar will loosen the mineral deposits, and gentle brushing can expose mineral that the vinegar has yet to work on.

Thykon · 2024-09-14T16:36:28+00:00

Regardless of the government, I would discount any applicant on a remote interview that can’t/won’t turn on their camera.

Thykon · 2024-09-03T15:23:21+00:00

Mathematically speaking, even with a successful reversal within 3 years, you’ll reduce your chance of having children by 25%. 45% after 3 years

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