Some research is now suggesting that there are significantly higher rates of prostatitis and benign prostate hypertrophy (enlarged prostate) in men post-vasectomy, both of which are uncomfortable and inconvenient at best. As well, there are cases where post-vasectomy pain has continued for years after the surgery.

To be clear, however, no higher risk of prostate cancer has been found in most studies.

For many men and many couples vasectomy may be a very good solution to the problem of long-term “no more kids, ever” birth control. However, it’s always important to be informed (and to inform oneself) about the risks in any surgical procedure, and to make sure to go to many sources for information.

if a man and a woman are in a LTR (with no intention of having children) and they know each other are clean, for the man to ask to “trade off”? on the use of a condom, if he finds the experience less pleasurable with than without.

In reference to sponges, well, there’s no way to put this but bluntly: they have a spermicide which (apparently) doesn’t taste all that great. My partner at the time was not overly fond of them. Also, a lot of people have allergies or sensitivities to spermicides which can cause quite painful, unpleasant reactions.

half the time he can wear a condom, half the time she can use a diaphragm, that sorta thing. Condoms are a fine methods of birth control and antivenereal protection, but are they the be-all end all?

No, but contraceptive preference also involves personal taste & personal requirements. Guys always talk about diaphragms as if they’re no big deal. Guess again: firstly, they have to be properly fitted, which means going to a doctor or clinic, and can therefore involve more money that a lot of us have. Also, you have to insert the damn things. For some women, that may be no big deal, but for some of us, that means ages getting into all sorts of outlandish positions trying to get them properly positioned or get them out again. And that process can be frustrating (not very conducive to getting you in the proper mood), uncomfortable and sometimes even downright painful. Penis length isn’t standard-issue and neither is vagina length.

Condoms, compared to other birth-control choices, are just easier, cheaper (at least looking at how much you have to lay down in one go), and don’t involve actual physical suffering on the part of either participant.

If a woman can & wants to use other altnernatives, great. But insisting on condoms isn’t necessarily a sign of selfishness.

Just for full disclosure, I should also point out that I am a 26-year-old male virgin, so have been doing my part not to increase the problem of unwanted pregnancies.

Scott: at the Wegman’s I go to, the condoms are next to the pads and plugs, it just seems odd placement to me (unless they’re going for the wall of embarassing shopping). But then I sure as shit don’t want anyone to go diving in the Red Sea, wetsuit or not.

In my local Albertsons, they’re under the pharmacy window, but not behind a counter. At FoodMaxx, they’re beside the feminine hygine products– the same for Longs (a local drug store). Rite Aid’s got them below the pharmacist window again (but still publically accessible).

The stores that have them away from the feminine hygine usually confuse me, only because there are usually some forms of birth control beside the feminine products and it seems unintuitive to split up contraception. Of course, the first time I looked around Longs, I didn’t look in the feminine products aisle, ’cause condoms are clearly a “guy thing”, which made my hunt a very long one.

I used to use sponges back in the late 80s, and what I remember the most about them are the damn contortions I used to have to go through just to get the damn things out.

As much as I like the idea of “empowering” choices for women, I have to say that every female-targeted contraceptive I’ve used/heard of has been waaaay more complicated, uncomfortable or just plain dangerous than condoms.

Speaking of which, the other day I was looking for condoms (I haven’t needed them for a long time, and I was thinking I should have some around, just on general principles) and I visited about half a dozen different drug stores in my neighborhood before I found one with condoms actually out where a customer could reach them. Another two had them behind the cashier, and the other three didn’t seem to carry them at all. Has this changed in the last few years? I thought they used to be a lot easier to find.

Trish,–”sponge baby?!” Ha! It makes you wonder how many of us are the “result” of contraceptive failure.

It angers me incredibly that more research hasn’t gone into male contraception, because there are single use items or exctremley minor surgeries that can be reversed with a good success rate. They’re just not in the US, because birth control is considered to be evil here, mostly by people who then bemoan the high teen pregnancy rate, and the amount of unwed mothers.