My reason for posting this is because I couldn’t find anyone else freezing sperm prior to vasectomy (vas) with the intention of using it to procreate later on. So I wanted to share my experience for anyone to look at in the future.

I’m 28, and want kids in 10 + years. I decided a vas was for me after a girl I was seeing had an abortion after she took her pill at irregular times. If she wanted a kid this would have drastically changed my life since she lives very far away from my home country.

The reason for the vas is because:

  • I don’t want that to happen again
  • If I want kids, the only time my sperm is needed out of all the times I’ll ever have sex is when conceiving with the woman I choose one day, so there’s no need to risk having it present in my ejaculate for all the other 1000s of times I have sex
  • I don’t want to have a kid with the wrong woman (I might have a girlfriend but not be sure that I want children with her)
  • to keep the choice up to me
  • I’ve got 3 friends that had children with women they weren’t 100% sure about, or much earlier than they intended even with the right women. They seem content but deep down their dreams have taken a back seat and they seem sad.
  • I’m happy to pay USD 4000 for storage per decade ($10/wk) and USD 2500-7500 per conceived kid to ensure they don’t come as a surprise and with the right person.
  • etc.

What the process involved:

Finding a sperm freezing centre

Visiting them 8 times to freeze my samples. It was about USD 200 per sample and it costs USD 350 per year to store all of my samples. They are stored in a lab on the 22nd floor of a security building, backed up by backup power in case of blackout.

I considered storing half the samples in another city and company in case of war or negligence but I’ll take the small risk for now so I don’t have to pay twice as much.

Each sample has about 20 ‘straws’. So 160 straws in total.

These straws are really small tubes of sperm which are used in IUI or IVF. So they don’t have to thaw the entire sample.

In IUI they melt about 4 straws and place it in the woman. Google it for more info. Each IUI attempt is exactly the same chance of getting a woman pregnant as regular sex when she’s ovulating. In Australia it costs about $1500 USD per attempt. Usually if your sperm is within normal range and her eggs are fertile, it can take 1-4 attempts, 1 attempt per month to get pregnant.

In IVF the chances are 8x because they try to impregnate 8 eggs at once (I think). It costs around 3x the cost.

I spoke to a urology specialist and asked loads of questions. He said:

You can still get sperm directly from the balls to use in IVF (if anyone hasn’t frozen sperm).

For the woman, doing IUI or IVF is simple and just like a Pap smear.

Many men have done the same as me.

Men’s Sperm doesn’t change much with age

Among many other things but I’ll move on.

The vasectomy was simple and pain free. I sucked on a Pethrox whistle and got super high and just listened to music then it was done. Sore for a few days after.

That’s it so far!