Dr. Jean-Philippe Bercier BSc, MD, CCFP
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Introduction
Preparation
Operation
Recovery
4 – Recovery
You will undoubtedly be relieved to get up and walk around after four hours of lying supine. However, we ask you to return home or to your hotel room and minimize activity. Spend the evening in bed or on a sofa; read or watch television (for the first 48 hours, your scrotum should be as high as your heart to minimize scrotal venous pressure and bleeding).
Backaches are possible during the overnight hours. We suggest you sleep on your side with hips and knees flexed or on your back with your legs elevated on five or six pillows so that your hips and knees are flexed at a 60-degree angle. Doing so will keep your lumbar spine straight and eliminate the lordotic curve, providing excellent relief for most back-pain sufferers.
Post Vasectomy Reversal Instructions
- Eat whatever you like, as much as you desire.
- Take the antibiotics per prescription schedule.
- The scrotal support should be left on during bowel movements for the first 48 hours following the surgery.
- We suggest icing the front of your scrotum, on top of the scrotal support, for 48 hours, 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.
- Before you leave we will give you a prescription for Celebrex 200 mg to take twice a day with your breakfast and dinner.
- If you still have discomfort despite the ice and taking Celebrex, take Tylenol. Do not take aspirin.
- Extra gauze will be provided. Change the gauze through the scrotal support opening when it becomes blood stained over an area about the size of a half dollar.
- Keep your follow-up appointment on the day after the procedure. At that time, I will remove the small drain tube inserted at the time of the reversal, a process that most patients don’t even feel. The incision is left open to allow drainage and healing from the bottom to the surface.
- If you leave the office by car, your partner should drive. Once you have returned home or to your hotel, you should be in a reclining position for at least a few hours after the drain removal. Air travel is not permitted until two days after the reversal.
- You may remove the scrotal support and gauze and take a shower two days after the procedure. Gently wash the scrotum with soap and water, pat it dry and reapply a scrotal support. (Soap and water will not infect the wound.) At this point, you may use the more traditional “jock strap” athletic supporter, the top of which must be lowered for urination or bowel movements. However, we ask you to wear the scrotal support for three weeks. Use gauze if there is any spotting from the incision site, just to keep your support unstained.
- Skin may be discoloured around the incision. This is normal. This discoloration sometimes extends part way down the shaft of the penis, and the incision may not close for two or three weeks. Apply a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in the incision daily to keep it clean.
- Most men can resume their normal activities and work at about 14 days after the reversal. For those with exceptionally physical occupations or hobbies such as: weight lifting, squats, crunches, leg press, road biking, horseback riding or similar behaviors, we encourage that they avoid the most strenuous activities for a full 4 weeks.
- Ejaculation may resume two weeks following the procedure. You may notice some blood in the ejaculate; however, this is no cause for concern.
- Bring a semen sample in the container provided or in any tightly sealed, clean container to a medical lab one month after your reversal. The test may be repeated three to six months later. This will depend on the sample results and possibility of pregnancy.
- The frequency of optimal coital intercourse is every 48 hours, from 6 days before the day of ovulation to 1 day after the day of ovulation. The success rate is even better 3 days before the day of ovulation until the day of ovulation.
- It is also important to avoid excessive heat to the scrotum indefinitely as long as you’re trying to conceive.
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