Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Comment on: Vasectomy incidence in the military health system after the reversal of Roe v. Wade

International Journal of Impotence Research (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

A recent study published in the International Journal of Impotence Research (IJIR) by Pierson et al. [1] analyzes a very interesting topic: a significant rise in vasectomies among members of the US military health system following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling. This judicial ruling, which, in consequence, overturned both Planned parenthood and Roe v. Wade, undeniably impacted access to reproductive healthcare across the country, including abortion services [2, 3].

Vasectomy is the main method of permanent contraception for men [4]. It offers a safe and effective alternative with faster recovery times compared to female tubal ligation [4, 5]. As expected, national interest in vasectomies has spiked in the wake of the Dobbs decision, with data from Google trends, social media analyses, and large data set claims studies reflecting this trend [3].

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Pierson BC, Banaag A, Janvrin ML, Koehlmoos TP. Vasectomy incidence in the military health system after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Int J Impot Res. 2024 18;1–6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00905-7.

  2. Paltrow LM, Harris LH, Marshall MF. Beyond abortion: the consequences of overturning Roe. Am J Bioeth. 2022;22:3–15.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Huang Z, Hyman MJ, Raheem OA. Trends in the vasectomy rate among privately insured men aged 18-64 in the United States between 2014 and 2021. Urology. 2023;179:80–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Sharlip ID, Belker AM, Honig S, Labrecque M, Marmar JL, Ross LS, et al. Vasectomy: AUA guideline. J Urol. 2012;188:2482–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Kulczycki A. Dobbs: navigating the new quagmire and its impacts on abortion and reproductive health care. Health Educ Behav. 2022;49:924–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Tanielian T, Farmer C. The US military health system: promoting readiness and providing health care. Health Aff. 2019;38:1259–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bole R, Lundy SD, Pei E, Bajic P, Parekh N, Vij SC. Rising vasectomy volume following reversal of federal protections for abortion rights in the United States. Int J Impot Res. 2024;36:265–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Eisenberg ML, Henderson JT, Amory JK, Smith JF, Walsh TJ. Racial differences in vasectomy utilization in the United States: data from the national survey of family growth. Urology. 2009;74:1020–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Hyman MJ, Huang Z, Raheem OA. The percentage of men counseled by urologists who received a vasectomy mildly increased after the publication of the AUA vasectomy guideline. Int J Impot Res. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00829-2.

  10. An increased focus on vasectomy: overturn of Roe v. Wade catalyzes rise in U.S. vasectomy requests [Internet]. [cited 11 Jun 2024]. Available from: https://www.fertstert.org/news-do/increased-focus-vasectomy-overturn-roe-v-wade-catalyzes-rise-u-s-vasectomy-requests.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Glickman Urological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Marcelo Mass Lindenbaum & Petar Bajic

  2. Glickman Urological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Omer Raheem

Authors
  1. Marcelo Mass Lindenbaum
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Petar Bajic
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Omer Raheem
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed equally to the manuscript. MML, PB and OAR contributed to analyzing data and writing manuscripts and references. Authors BP and OAR contributed and supervised the complete and final version of the manuscript and provided extensive revisions and final conclusions.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Omer Raheem.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lindenbaum, M.M., Bajic, P. & Raheem, O. Comment on: Vasectomy incidence in the military health system after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Int J Impot Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00943-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00943-1

Search

Advanced search

Quick links