But today men who get their vasectomies reversed have anywhere from a 30 to 75 percent of getting their partners pregnant, depending on how much time has passed since they underwent their vasectomies. Techniques have advanced considerably. A professor of reproductive medicine and urology and co-executive director of the Cornell Institute for Reproductive Medicine, Goldstein has performed vasectomies since 1977. With rising rates of divorce and second marriages, the trend to postpone child-bearing to later years, and more effective surgical procedures, men as well as women are getting involved in fertility operations. More men are having their vasectomies reversed now than a quarter-century ago, experts say.
Men seeking to reverse their vasectomies are still in the minority, however.
To begin with, undoing a simple, 30-minute vasectomy costs many times more than getting one. And while many health insurers cover vasectomies, they rarely cover the surgery to undo them. Doctors say that psychological issues complicate the matter as well. Some men, they say, are ashamed for people to know they had a vasectomy in the first place. No one wants to publicly admit they have a problem.