That must have been the problem – my wife thought frozen beans were the way to go…
— Bill 
I got mine done in December 2005 and I think I did a nice writeup on my family blog:
http://www.fivebrowns.com/2005/12/the-end-of-the-line/
Money quotes:
““The feel-bad puncture of the year,” sighed Joel Siegel.”
“In my head, I was thinking, “Bye, bye, you hypodermic bastard!” Oh, but then there was the other nut. Repeat and cry.”
While, not my own, I’ve overheard a few stories in the locker room.
“You be sure you go back and get tested.”
“Oh, you know it.”
“Just because they…you know…snip snip, doesn’t mean a sure thing.”
— Pat
Cheap, relatively painless, effective, and six years ago. Nothing to complain about considering what my wife had gone through when our two kids were born. Not even close to penance, in fact.
— Derek
My only story is I chickened out :)
— Darryl
Been there, done that, at the very same doctors office too.
http://bitworking.org/news/Do_Not_Touch_The_Tools
I see you have this post properly tagged.
— Joe
Three weeks ago. Relatively painless. The valium was fun. Getting hit square on by my three-year-old’s knee two days later wasn’t. But, after three kids and two miscarriages over six and a half years, I can take a little pain.
— James
A bit different here in the UK. I was advised (note, not told) to take one valium the night before, and two valium one hour before the appointment, which meant my wife had to drive me to the clinic. The most interesting part was seeing all the other nervous-looking men there. I swear most of them were too macho to have taken the pills. They didn’t look at all happy about it whereas I was just interested in everything that was happening. (My wife says I was worryingly calm :-) In the theatre I was complimented on my shave, which I did in the bath the previous night — it’s bloody hard to do well, I can tell you. We had a very jokey time, hardly any pain, only a little prick (!) when the local anaesthetic was administered.
The hardest part about the whole experience was telling my father. I haven’t had any children, and my wife and I don’t want to, but he thought my choice was a betrayal. I don’t think we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on this one.
So, my advice: take the valium, it’s well worth it. And find out the opinion of those whose opinions matter to you before you do it. I wouldn’t have foregone the procedure, but I might have approached the telling of it differently had I known how my father felt.
— Chris
The no-scalpel version I had required no Valium and no shaving. Just some relatively mild painkillers and ice afterward. I’m not sure why the old-style version still persists. And if you’re comfortable with your decision, there’s no reason to be nervous.
It did show me that I look ridiculous in sweatpants, and I haven’t worn them since.
I’ll tell you, it hurt like the DEVIL when he grabbed hold of it with pliers and YANKED for all he was worth! And then it wouldn’t come out, he brought out this…
Wait a sec….isn’t this the dental thread?
Oh, damn. Sorry. Wrong topic.
Carry on.
— Shelley
Shelley, these are not the droids you’re looking for.
— Mark
Welcome back, Mark. We missed you!
I haven’t had that done yet.
— W^L+ (Walt)
Did a back flip into the pool three hours later. No big deal.
— Steve
I had no idea this was so prevalent. Ouch. Why???
Christian, I will direct you to a post from January 2003: So here we are, three months before the wedding, snowed in with no birth control.
I am, apparently, quite virile. And I don’t say that in a high-school-locker-room kind of way. I say it in a 2-kids-no-waiting kind of way.
— Mark
I had to go buy a jockstrap for after the operation. I haven’t bought a jock strap since junior high.
No valium needed, although I did up the Vioxx samples he gave me for a day. A bit of ice helped.
No valium offered when I had mine done. The whole event was, well, practically a non-event. In and out in 15 minutes. Admittedly, it’s always a little crazy-making when people start waving scalpels around your Johnson, but I figured the doctor knew what he was doing.
It’s been 7 or 8 years since, and so far, so good.
Have not had it done yet.
Welcome back, Mark. We missed you.
— Walt (W^L+)
Oh lordy Mark, you could have heard my jaw dropped when I read the post at the other end of the link.
— Shelley
OK. My doc did a multi-step procedure to help make sure that virility didn’t come back. He snipped, stapled/clipped the ends, stitched them (I think, if I remember correctly), and cauterized the ends (that part I remember clearly–hearing sizzling and smelling burning from that area can be disconcerting).
But apart from the gory details, it was a painless procedure. I even went to a BNL concert that night, although jumping off the back fence at the ampitheater was a definite mistake. The only aftereffect was that I was black and blue for 3 weeks or so, but hey, that’s life. I’ve been fine ever since.
— Dave
Ahh, the vasectomy, glad to have an opportunity to share this with the world ;)
I’ve heard horror stories and mine doesn’t quite fall into that category, but given the mild nature of some of these posts, I have to share mine.
The whole procedure went quite well. I was dissapointed that the surgeon decided to cut and tie, rather than cut, fold and tie, but hey, I’m sure it’ll be fine, except that it might not be because I saw the guy on the bed next to me a few months later and he told me that his wife was pregnant again. Anyway, it was pretty painless, I looked down after the initial injection (local anaesthetic) to see the surgeon holding my vas between a pair of tweezers and cutting it with a scalpal. I found the whole thing pretty fascinating. I watched the whole procedure, lying there with my old boy on display, room full of nurses rubber necking to get a better view then turning away dissapointed. It was only after the surgery that I had problems. On my right sack, the stitches came undone. I could see right through to my testacle. I was worried that the hole would stay open and it would keep filling with fluff, but thankfully with time it healed. The left sack stitches held, but the area of the cut became infected and very inflamed. The skin was soft and the tight stitches cut into my skin like cheese wire through an over-ripe tomato. It was a huge relief when the stitches dissolved allowing my poor scrotum to heal 2 weeks later. Even if I knew that was going to happen I still would have done it. Nothing compared to childbirth. I’m amazed that women voluntarily put themselves through that more than once.
Sounds like lots of fun. I can’t wait…but I’ll probably have to. The waiting lists over here are years long. Everyone must want one!