(245) ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC INTEREST IN VASECTOMY AFTER DOBBS VS. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Authors: Morrison C , Nelson A , Moser A , Liaw A 
Published: December 2024

Introduction

The ruling of the Dobbs Decision has led to increased rates of vasectomy consultations shortly after compared to institutional historical data. While insightful, this does not address the interest of the general public and those interested who have yet to see a urologist, nor the long term trends to be expected by urologists.

Objective

We sought to assess trends via Google Trends data seen in interest related to vasectomy before and after the Dobbs decision was publicized.

Methods

Google Trends (google.trends.com) was used to extract weekly proportional search volume data for 23 terms related to vasectomy for 18 months before and after the Dobbs decision. Terms involved general interest in vasectomy, where and how to receive a vasectomy, safety, reversibility, success rates, cost, and possible side effects (supplementary data). Average scores for interest in each search term were calculated for the entire study period. Z-score was used to assess for significant differences between each weekly score and the study average.

Results

Overall, general trends showed significant increases in interest (defined as at least one significant finding) in 18 out of 23 searches between June 11, 2022 to July 9, 2022 (June/July). Of these 18 searches, 16 also demonstrated an additional increase of interest between April 30, 2022 to May 7, 2022 (April/May). One search, “does a vasectomy affect testosterone,” witnessed increased interest during April/May but did not have significant findings during June/July. Additionally, 14 of the 18 significant searches had the highest spike of google trend searches related to vasectomy on June 25, 2022 (one day after the Dobbs decision was made). During June/July, “vasectomy safety” and “pregnant after vasectomy” searches only had one significant spike, while the remaining 14 searches had multiple weeks of significant increases. After the June/July window, much of the proportional interest in vasectomy-related searches returned to pre-Dobbs levels. When considering general vasectomy searches (n = 11), searches related to definition, where and how to get the procedure, and cost had multiple spikes during June/July, compared to searches related to vasectomy safety, which only had one or no significant spikes during this window. When considering post-Dobbs searches (n = 12), searches related to reversibility, side effects, and success had multiple significant spikes during June/July, compared to searches for pregnancy risk and effect on testosterone or sex drive, which had one or no significant spikes during June/July.

Conclusions

We found significant increases in Google searches related to vasectomies after the Dobbs decision. Shortly after this, much of the proportional interest in vasectomy-related searches returned to pre-Dobbs levels, suggesting vasectomy interest was strong, but very short-lived. Current literature strongly supports the increased rates of vasectomy consultations, but is lacking in long-term data. Our study assesses the general public’s interest in vasectomy, and if correlated with clinical trends, may predict a sharp decline in vasectomy consultations and completions.

Disclosure

No.