Evaluation of Sperm after Vasectomy Reversal

Several times a month a patient, who has had a vasectomy reversal, will drop off a specimen to see if there are any sperm present. This evaluation takes just a minute to do. If sperm is present it means that the reversal mechanically is open and has been successful. This evaluation however doesn’t count the sperm, that would require a full semen analysis which is done through the hospital lab and quantitates the actual number of sperm present.

For the purposes of seeing if the reversal “worked or not” the in office check for sperm is sufficient. If there are no sperm and it has been three months post reversal this may either means that reversal is not open but probably more likely that the testicles have not “picked up the ball” and started producing sperm yet. It can take four to twelve months for the sperm to be produced in numbers sufficient for conception. The time to producing sperm by the testicles post vasectomy is large part dependent on the interval between the vasectomy and the reversal.

It is always a “drum roll” moment when the specimen is dropped off for me to evaluate and always rewarding to see sperm moving about so excited to be set free and get to work.

The following is not a post reversal sample but it shows what you want to see in the ejaculate after a reversal. It is also interesting how the maker of the video created the project.