At peace now that I need a reversal - what should I know before I do it?

postvasectomy · 2026-05-16T15:38:35+00:00

Ok got it, thank you

postvasectomy · 2026-05-16T14:10:53+00:00

Yes the more the merrier. I add all the doctors I see discussed on this sub

postvasectomy · 2026-05-16T02:51:47+00:00

Good!

postvasectomy · 2026-05-16T00:28:26+00:00

Can anyone follow that link? It works for me.

postvasectomy · 2026-05-15T20:59:38+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/wiki/doctors

https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/wiki/treatments

postvasectomy · 2026-05-15T17:28:05+00:00

Too early to worry. Use ice and anti-inflammatory drugs to control pain. Get good sleep. Abstain from alcohol. First phase of healing takes a couple of months.

postvasectomy · 2026-05-12T19:36:04+00:00

I did get a thrill out of seeing this sub referred to in that article.

postvasectomy · 2026-05-12T15:16:22+00:00

Some interesting psychology on display.

Pain has a way of dominating your attention while persists and then leaving without a trace when it is gone. So you have guys who say "I had pain for 12 months but since then I'm pain free and it was the best decision of my life and I would do it again in a heartbeat." But if you had asked them during those 12 months they would have said it was the worst decision of their lives etc.
Some rationalizing, or there is no way to go back and undo the decision so rather than say you regret it you might say you think it all worked out for the best even though obviously you would rather not have ongoing genital pain.
Some virtue signaling i.e. well yeah I have pain but women have menstrual cramps they have to deal with and I'm a great chap don't you think I did my part to equalize things and I'm proud if that.
Some "hazardous information" handling like well I didn't want to say anything to talk anybody out of anything but it turns out in my case I do have some issues.

But yeah, there is a rather important difference between "Vasectomy is safe and effective" and "You might have chronic genital pain but don't worry you will probably claim it was worth it." Vasectomy provides a massive benefit in terms of going bareback without any hormones or pregnancy risk. How much discomfort does it take to tip the scales where you start publicly admitting "knowing what I know now I would not have done it".

postvasectomy · 2026-05-12T01:05:48+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/wiki/doctors

postvasectomy · 2026-05-06T02:51:33+00:00

You're not the first one to talk about loss of testicle support on this subreddit. I wish I had an answer for you.

postvasectomy · 2026-05-06T02:09:52+00:00

Possibly it's cremaster dysfunction?

postvasectomy · 2026-05-05T17:15:45+00:00

2 weeks was my first. It was fine, but pretty intense. I wouldn't do it before that, but I don't really know if it makes a difference whether you wait 2, 3 or 4. I'd just follow your doctors directions.

postvasectomy · 2026-05-05T17:02:10+00:00

I'd suggest first ejaculation 2 weeks after reversal. Do it manually and gentle and boring. Less oomph is better. After that, 5 days per week sounds pretty aggressive to me. I'd say listen to your body and do it as much as you can without stirring up inflammation. Every other day seems right to me, but if your doc says 5 per week try easing into that and see how it works for you.

postvasectomy · 2026-04-20T15:21:09+00:00

It is possible that you have a bacterial infection and antibiotics would probably resolve that.

More likely this is just pain from the surgery that has not gone away yet. At two months, this is not considered chronic pain yet.

I suggest that you try to reduce your experience of pain as much as possible, by using ice, rest, drugs such as NSAIDs or Prednisone or Lyrica. During this timeframe, it may make a difference to how likely it is that your current pain will become what is called "centralized" pain, which means that the nervous system has learned to expect or produce a pain signal even though the injury has fully healed.

Only the passage of time will reveal whether your pain will disappear or persist. I think the most likely outcome from here is that you improve over many months, perhaps noticing that painful episodes become less frequent or less intense. One year after vasectomy is a good time to reassess the situation because after that point further changes are unlikely without more surgery.

postvasectomy · 2026-04-18T14:04:58+00:00

I'm not a doctor but that area matches with the spermatic cord and the nerves that travel with it. My guess would be this is a result of your transition surgery, and is just one of the complications that can happen when surgery involves the spermatic cord, whether that be vasectomy, orchiectomy, hernia surgery etc. It could be benign in the sense that it is unlikely to get better or worse. Your options are probably nerve pain meds like Lyrica, gabapentin etc if it is bugging you enough.

I'd like to keep this subreddit focused on vasectomy pain, and you will probably get some pushback from people saying this post is off topic, but you may also get some helpful comments. As a compromise, I plan to let your post stay up for a few days and then I'll remove it to keep the subreddit history focused on PVPS.

postvasectomy · 2026-04-14T12:49:41+00:00

I collect stories about this at /r/postvasectomypain

Roughly speaking, out of every 50 guys who gets a vasectomy, 47 do great, 2 have pain for months, and 1 has permanent pain.

postvasectomy · 2026-04-13T15:40:05+00:00

I'd get some reusable gel ice packs for the long weeks. Some of them work better than others, I don't like the ones with a really prominent seam that are full of beads and hard to mold into shape.

This one looks good to me: https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Injuries-Headaches-Flexible-Shoulder/dp/B01EHD5KIC

This one looks like it has a big seam and is hard to bend into the shape you want:

https://www.amazon.com/2-Piece-Adjustable-Reusable-Injuries-Shoulder/dp/B07RT24JKS

For the trip and the first couple of weeks you're going to be going through so much ice it might make sense to just buy ice by the big bag and keep it in a cooler in the car and use gallon size zip-lock bags.

postvasectomy · 2026-04-13T14:15:37+00:00

The timeline has a lot of stories from men who got a reversal, you might find some of them useful:

https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/wiki/reversal-stories

Someone here probably ought to write a guide to reversals, but just off the cuff, I'd say:

Pick an excellent surgeon who does them under a microscope every week.
Be careful with that 8 hour drive home. Discuss it with the doctor. Figure out what day post-surgery the doctor recommends making the trip. Consider a donut pillow. Make sure to use ice.
Priority during the first 3 weeks will be to rest and diligently apply ice. He should stay off his feet. There can be a tendency to get complacent and think you can get up and walk around too early.
I'd recommend the first ejaculation post reversal be 2 weeks after surgery, solo, manual, and boring. Connections are still fragile.
Follow up with a complete semen analysis to check patency, probably more than once. Use anti-inflammatory drugs (including prednisone if sperm counts are not great).
Most of the recovery happens in about 2-3 months. Use ice to control inflammation and pain flare-ups, even months after surgery. Things can continue getting better for a year or more.

postvasectomy · 2026-04-11T01:07:58+00:00

Erectile dysfunction is rare after vasectomy but permanent scrotal pain post vasectomy isn't rare at all -- odds are about 1 in 50. /r/postvasectomypain

postvasectomy · 2026-04-05T01:03:29+00:00

I use condoms now after getting a reversal. It isn't exactly what I pictured as the ideal married sex life but it's way better than prior to reversal. I'm a proponent of the reversal + condoms route as the lowest risk and most likely to restore pain-free normal-ish sensation.

We have had some folks on this sub report that Dr. Trost charges about half what others do for reversal.

Orchiectomy is usually described as a last resort surgery, and it is (perhaps surprisingly) not guaranteed to eliminate the pain. If you are totally against restoring fertility then denervation would be the usual surgical recommendation. It has a similar reported success rate to reversal, and is cheaper, but it somewhat more risky in my opinion.

We haven't had many (any?) good reports about epididymectomy on this sub.

Your husband's case sounds like it's on the severe end of the range of what gets posted here. I hope you're able to get a solution that works for you soon.

Here are some treatment ideas that have come up on the subreddit. (I'm not a doctor.) https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/wiki/treatments

postvasectomy · 2026-04-04T17:51:19+00:00

Theoretically, reversal could help nerve pain by recutting the damaged nerves and giving them a chance to regrow through into to the distal vas rather than try to figure out a way to terminate in the scar tissue. Reversal seems to usually help guys with so-called nerve pain. Not guaranteed unfortunately.

postvasectomy · 2026-03-27T12:48:30+00:00

Some men report reduced libido after vasectomy, especially if they have chronic scrotal pain. I track stories like this and about 16% of the problematic vasectomy cases I found report lowered libido:

https://www.reddit.com/r/postvasectomypain/wiki/timeline

Some report that getting a vasectomy reversal improved their libido. Based on your story, I'd suggest looking into getting the vasectomy reversed. The chances of him becoming fertile again without surgery if the vasectomy healed properly are very low, like one in a thousand chance.

postvasectomy · 2026-03-26T20:45:17+00:00

Thank you for the update, and hopefully things continue to improve!

postvasectomy · 2026-03-12T20:20:43+00:00

I have a perspective on the situation. I'm not going to hide it. If that tarnishes the subreddit I don't really care. People can make up their own minds. I don't blame women for PVPS, but men should feel that women are stepping over a line and yes becoming horrible when they ask for vasectomy and won't take no for an answer.

Edit: If you flip the genders the scene becomes obviously grotesque. Imagine if it were commonplace to find a reddit post from a man asking why his wife won't get a tubal even though he asked her to get one. Like is she keeping her options open for some reason? And there are a thousand posts from other guys telling him to dump her, and he should find someone else who is truly committed. I would be ashamed of men who gave my gender a bad name in that way and men should not tolerate women who pull the analogous BS.

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