Although anyone with a medical degree can “legally” perform a vasectomy, only Urologists are certified by The American Board of Medical Specialties and The American Board of Urology. Dr. Agha is a diplomat of the American Board of Urology and has completed over 5 years of specialty training after graduating from medical school. He has the advanced training necessary to deal with the occasional difficult vasectomy or complication.
Please ask your doctor if he or she is certified by The American Board of Urology.
In this day of information age, patients have access, via the Internet and other means, to more and better information about health care than ever before. Informed patients are focusing upon trustworthy, credible sources of healthcare information. One such source is The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), a not-for-profit organization which assists 24 approved medical specialties in evaluation and certification of physicians. One such specialty is Urology. The ABMS is recognized as the “gold standard” in physician certification which means better care for patients.
Vasectomy is a simple procedure especially in skilled hands. Various types of physicians including family physicians, general surgeons and sometimes even gynecologist perform this rather innocuous procedure.
No procedure should however be taken lightly. The horror stories of simple vasectomy are not unheard of. Excessive pain due to poor technique of anesthesia and excessive bleeding producing massive swelling of scrotum is fairly common. Poor identification of vas is a factor when urologists are generally called by surgeons unfamiliar with the procedure. Following operative complications have been reported
Complication
|
Rate of occurrence (%) |
Surgical complications |
|
Bleeding or hematoma |
1.6 to 4.6 |
Incisional infection |
2.2 to 6.0 |
Sperm granuloma |
15 to 40 |
Congestive epididymitis |
0.4 to 6.1 |
Other complications |
|
Hospitalization |
0.2 to 0.8 |
Psychogenic impotence |
Uncommon |
Vasourinary fistula |
Rare |
All urologists are trained in the surgery of genitourinary organs. Even within this specialty, there are some who do mostly scrotal and vas surgery. For this group, the vasectomy becomes a second nature.
Of course if you have many choices, when it comes to your own body, you certainly want to have it done by a specialist.