In a clinic in New Zealand.
A man is lying on his back on an operating chair, wearing a captain's hat, a work badge and a cell phone in each hand.
He looked relaxed, looking intently at his phone while making a call, with a smile on his face.
As soon as the camera turned, the doctor was ready in his lower body:
The man on the operating chair is Mike Lane and is undergoing a vasectomy, also known as a ligation.
01
The New Zealand man went live while being ligated
Mike Lane was holding two mobile phones at the time of the ligation, one to watch live international cricket matches and the other to give live commentary.
He is the owner of ACC, New Zealand's most interesting sports review league, and is adept at digging into content in life.
Mike Lane on the right
He deliberately chose the day of the single-day international competition between Australia and New Zealand for his vasectomy.
Lane asked that only a small amount of local anesthetic be used so as not to interfere with his live commentary.
"Hazelwood, 35," he said, speaking into the phone as he watched the game.
Immediately after, his next sentence was: "I don't feel my balls anymore." ”
After a few seconds, he immediately returned to his work and began to explain.
Videos of Lane undergoing a vasectomy went viral, but there was a more important reason for the surgery for him.
When his wife, Anna, gave birth to their third child, they knew they couldn't have another child.
There is no doubt that his preferred method of contraception is to go for the sterilization himself.
"I watched my wife give birth to our three children, and the least I could do was go to the clinic and spend half an hour cauterizing my vas deferens." He said.
Lane and his wife, Anna
Seven years after the operation, Lane says the whole process was easy, painless and easy when it comes to the video that made him a global sensation.
"The surgery was not painful, but it was uncomfortable. This is undeniable.
"It's uncomfortable because it's a sensitive area and the vas deferens is rarely touched. Even the stomach can feel the pull, which is why many people are a little scared. ”
However, he was surprised by how non-invasive the surgery was, "It doesn't even require stitches, just a bandage when you're done." ”
What impressed him the most about the surgery was that he went straight back to the cricket match – Eden Park in Auckland – and sat on a cushion to explain the rest of the operation. He remembers it was a good game.
02
"It's fast and easy, it doesn't feel much"
输精管切除术，又称为输精管结扎术( Vasectomy，Deferentectomy) 。
A typical ligation procedure takes only 10 minutes, which cuts the tube that carries sperm out of the testicles (vas deferens).
The doctor finds the vas deferens by touching the skin, then makes a small incision in the skin, pulls each vas deferens out one by one, cuts it, seals both ends (usually by cautery) so that the sperm cannot pass through, and then sends it back into the body.
While the procedure itself is quick, it is usually set aside for half an hour or more to take care of the formalities, calm the mood and any unexpected situations.
You can drive yourself home after the procedure, and if your job is to sit in the office, you can go back to work right away.
Jon Holmes underwent a vasectomy in February of this year, when his second child was 10 months old.
"I didn't do it because I wanted to give myself more time, maybe we wanted a third child. But when our second child was 10 months old, my wife and I thought it through and would not have any more children. ”
Holmes is a family of four
Holmes received a local anesthetic injection at the time of the procedure, which he described as "someone grabbing your testicles and squeezing it gently" for about two seconds, "not feeling much."
After that, he estimated that the whole process would be over in three or four minutes. "Very fast and very simple. Also, apart from the anesthetic injection, there was really no pain at all afterwards. I didn't feel anything. ”
After that, Holmes said, all that was left was a dull ache, which lasted a few days before returning to normal.
"I'm amazed that you walked into the hospital, had a vasectomy, and came out again as if nothing had happened." He said.
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China and New Zealand have very different attitudes towards ligation
When couples don't want to have children anymore, doctors often recommend that one of the spouses have a ligation to facilitate permanent contraception.
So is it the male or the female ligation?
The situation can vary greatly from country to country.
Previously, some Chinese netizens complained on social media that in order to get their husbands ligated, they ran 6 tertiary hospitals in second-tier provincial capitals, and all of them were rejected.
"Every doctor will tell me about the disadvantages of my husband's sterilization, and it is very terrible, and there are many sequelae......"
Some netizens said that the doctor repeatedly emphasized various drawbacks to him, "Why don't they say anything when women go to the ring?" ”
These cases reflect from one side how different the views of New Zealand and Chinese are on male sterilization!
What makes many Chinese men frightened is very common in New Zealand.
When former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was in office, he once made a public speech, and when a circle of reporters in the audience, he suddenly said, "I have already had ligation." ”
After he finished speaking, there was silence in the audience, because the reporters did not expect that the prime minister suddenly said such a very personal matter, and he did not know how to ask questions.
John Key and his wife childhood sweethearts, loving all their lives, he is a man who is willing to think about women, which is not uncommon in New Zealand.
04
New Zealand has a high rate of male sterilization
New Zealand is often seen as the quintessential country for a high proportion of male sterilizations and is also considered an ideal country to study the consequences of vasectomy.
About 20 years ago, the prevalence of vasectomy in New Zealand was 44 per cent, ranging from 57 per cent of men aged 40-49 years to 15 per cent of men aged 70-74 years.
According to a study by Urologic Clinics in North America, New Zealand was specifically mentioned as a country with a higher rate of vasectomy than tubal ligation.
The study said a total of 18 per cent of men in New Zealand had a vasectomy, compared to 25 per cent if only married men were counted.
In another study published in 2015, The Lancet also gave New Zealand 17-21% of men sterilized, only lower than Canada.
The New Zealand media recently reported that male sterilization is becoming more and more common in New Zealand, and in recent years, more and more people in their 30s are doing it, and there is a trend of younger people.
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Chinese doctor: Ligation has nothing to do with sexual function
According to data from the United States College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the World Health Organization (WHO) (2011), the success rate of condom use is only 82%.
The theoretical success rate of condoms is 98%, but the average actual success rate is low depending on whether they are used correctly.
And Luke Wee, a doctor at Auckland's vasectomy clinic Cooper Clinic, said the contraceptive success rate for male sterilization was much higher than 99 percent.
Many men are reluctant to have a sterilization for fear of the possible impact on their sexual performance.
However, Wee points out that there is no association between vasectomy and sexual dysfunction.
"If there is sexual dysfunction, it may be an underlying medical condition or psychological problem." He said.
Wee says he tries to make sure men of all ages are fully aware of whether vasectomy surgery is right for them:
"Because regret can be one of the psychological complications of vasectomy, and we don't talk much about it."
Therefore, Cooper Clinic does not perform vasectomy procedures for anyone under the age of 21.
However, he also said that advances in technology mean that "the concept of vasectomy being permanent is becoming obsolete" and that advanced technology means that sperm can be extracted without the need to restore the vas deferens.
"The men who decided to have a ligation had mixed emotions. As a result, fertility preservation or fertility restoration counseling is becoming an important part of the conversation with your doctor. "