She still suffers from received ideas but vasectomy is finally developing in France.
This method of male sterilization, which consists of cutting and blocking the vas deferens carrying sperm from the testicles, is attracting more and more men.
They don't want any more children, never intend to have any, or have decided to take their share of contraception and therefore turn to this solution.
According to the latest health insurance figures, the number of reimbursed vasectomies in France has increased from 1,908 in 2010 to 23,306 in 2021. At the same time, the number of tubal ligations, a permanent contraceptive surgery for women, dropped from 31,473 in 2010 to 21,490 in 2021. "Vasectomy has increased tenfold in ten years, the numbers remain low because we are starting from very far away, but clearly it is exploding," says urologist Vincent Hupertan.
Widespread in Anglo-Saxon countries
“In September 2016, I performed three vasectomies per month, now I am at 35, at the maximum of my capacities”, details this surgeon specializing in vasectomy “without scalpel” or “without scalpel”, which limits surgical risks.
A technique still unknown in France but which will necessarily progress "in the face of demand", he believes.
Very widespread in Anglo-Saxon countries or in Quebec (one in three men over the age of 50 use it), vasectomy has only been legal in France since 2001. weak, because of prejudices in the population, lack of information and difficulties of access”, explains Elodie Serna, doctor of history, author of the Opération vasectomy trial.
"Since 2011-2012, things have changed partly because of the" pill crisis ", which reacted to the uses of hormones," she continues.
It was around the same time that groups remobilized on the subject of male contraception”.
"A whole lot of taboos concerning virility"
If mentalities evolve, its extension always comes up against brakes.
"The first is the fear of pain," says Antoine Faix, member of the French Urology Association.
There also persist a whole heap of taboos concerning virility, received ideas about the potential consequences that the operation would have on erection or pleasure.
Men can take the step of freezing their sperm before the operation.
Vasectomy is indeed potentially, but with difficulty, reversible and this reversibility is not guaranteed.
Last obstacle: the price of the act, set by health insurance, is not an incentive for the practitioner, and tubal ligation remains today four times better paid.
"It's not a profitable act", regrets Doctor Hupertan.
However, he is convinced, “a revolution is underway”.
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