Mike: 'the worst day's work I've ever done'

Mike Reynolds, a company director from Bristol, had a vasectomy over 20 years ago. The surgery led to problems of pain and discomfort that have plagued him ever since.

"A vasectomy seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect it was one of the worst day's work I've ever done and I heartily regret it. For the first year, I put my pain and discomfort down to the aftermath of the operation, but when problems continued into the second year I began to think there was something wrong. I had pain every couple of weeks, generally a dull aching in the scrotal area which could sometimes become a more severe, stabbing type of pain. Sometimes it would go away for long enough for me to forget about it, but unfortunately it always returned.

"The first consultant I saw put the problem down to infection. I learned to live with it for a while longer, but later on decided I'd had enough and was referred again by my GP to a different hospital. This time I was told I had problems with my epididymis, and it was noticeably swollen. I was told I could have surgery to remove the epididymis [the tube that leads from the testicle to the vas deferens], risky in itself, or live with the pain. I chose the latter.

"A few more years passed until, again, the pain and discomfort began to get me down. Although it doesn't stop me working and hasn't noticeably affected my quality of life, it's rather like having constant toothache and I can do without it. The stabbing type of pain is sometimes severe enough to make me squirm in my seat, and it's worse when I'm driving. Although it hasn't affected my sex life, thank goodness, when it goes on for days on end it can make me grumpy.

"I returned to the same consultant I'd seen previously. This time the choices were to remove the epididymis or to remove the right testicle. I asked about vasectomy reversal, but he didn't think it would help. I opted instead to see a pain management specialist who gave me a nerve block, without success.

"At the beginning of this year I had another really bad bout of pain. I began to research post-vasectomy pain on the internet and came across one excellent specialist in Australia, Professor Earl Owen, who gave me the most complete and useful explanation of the problem to date. He suggested that a conversion to an open-ended vasectomy would be most likely to help although careful microsurgical removal of the epididymis might be necessary as a last resort. I was on the point of travelling to an American specialist to have this done when I discovered a British urologist who also offers the procedure.

"I had a consultation with Dr Andrew Dawson of the Hartlepool Vasectomy Clinic in the summer. He suggests conversion to open ended may help, At the moment I'm not in pain, so I'm undecided about going ahead. I'm hoping that as I get older, my naturally falling sperm production will ease the symptoms to a point where I don't notice the problem. However, if I have a bad bout like I had earlier this year when I'm in bad pain every other day I will go ahead with the surgery."