Nad-Negation

January 18, 2008

I laughed out loud a few times reading Michael Lewis’s vasectomy narrative, which reveals that the worst parts of the procedure all happen before it actually starts. I know getting snipped was the best decision I ever made… and it’s ridiculous that there is such a stigma (and so much false mythology) about it. The intro to Lewis’s piece:

Splayed on the operating table, staring at the back of a nurse scrubbing her hands, I was struck by the possibility that, in addition to its other challenges, a vasectomy might be a socially awkward experience. “Do you need to empty your bladder?” asked the nurse, who clearly found hospital English the safest language in which to address a stranger’s genitals. The clinic walls were undecorated, save for a lone medical drawing of the male sex organ, flayed to reveal its sober inner logic.

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“OK,” she said. “I’ll be right back to give you a shaving,” and left to do whatever nurses do before they apply razors to testicles. Two months earlier, in the pre-interview, during which it was determined that whatever I may have been told by my wife or the state police, I was under no legal obligation to be sterilized, the doctor explained that California law required a cooling off period between consultation and operation. On that chilly afternoon, he told me many other things about vasectomies but somehow failed to mention that they began with a good ball-shaving from a woman who didn’t look you in the eye, or say a word beyond the bare minimum.

Tags: essay, health, Humor