They don’t want any or no more children, so they opt for a definitive solution: the number of men performing a vasectomy has increased considerably over the last decade. According to a study published this Monday, February 12 by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) and the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam), male sterilizations increased 15-fold between 2010 and 2022, going from 1,940 to 30,288. At the same time, female sterilizations have decreased drastically in France – from around 45,000 in 2013, they have increased to just over 20,000 in 2022.
The average age of men who have opted for this contraception has decreased in recent years and now stands at just under 42 years, compared to 44 years in 2010. The men who underwent surgery lived “mainly in the most socially advantaged municipalities” , also specifies the study.
Vasectomy consists of “cutting or closing the vas deferens”, a filling which “then prevents the passage of sperm” towards the urethra, explains on his website the High Health Authority. This method “must be presented as permanent and irreversible”, adds the organization. Carried out by urologist doctors, most often using local anesthesia, vasectomy is effective within 8 to 16 weeks following the operation. A four-month reflection period is imposed on candidates for this operation.
This upward trend in the use of vasectomy in France goes against what is observed elsewhere: “vasectomy is experiencing a global decline, particularly in countries where it was traditionally more widespread such as in Anglo-Saxon countries”, underlines the report. The ANSM and the Cnam believe that the explosion of figures in France is due to the fact that the country seems to be “catching up its delay” and specifies that the levels of recourse to male sterilization “still remain lower than those of the leading countries in this field”. of definitive contraception”, like Canada for example.
The ANSM and Cnam study gives several arguments to explain the historical low use of male sterilization in France: “a historically pro-natalist policy”, “little promotion of male contraception in general”, measures recent contraceptive policies focusing “mainly on women”, “a territorial inequality of access to urological care” or even “fears about the repercussions on sexuality or on one’s health”. The report does not make any hypotheses on the reasons for French catching up, but judges that “sociological studies are necessary to confirm and explore the recent appropriation by French men of male sterilization”.