Three dads get joint vasectomies as a gift to their wives

Paul, John and Basilio, three dads in Los Angeles, normally spend their time together sat watching sports – when they’re not changing diapers or chatting about the kids. 

But this year, they decided to get together for a more unusual activity: getting vasectomies. 

Having each had two children with their respective wives, they are content with the size of their families. 

And so, as a gift to their partners, they are taking the very personal matter of birth control into their own hands. 

‘We made a pact to get them done,’ said Paul Diaz, who has known John and Basilio for years. 

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Getting the snip: Basilio Santangelo (left), John Lambrechts (middle) and Paul Diaz (right) arrive together for their vasectomies at The Men’s Clinic at UCLA. The trio decided to get vasectomies and share their story publicly to encourage more men to consider the operation

Paul Diaz and his wife, Lisa, decided that their family was complete after having two daughters. After speaking with his friends about the option of getting a vasectomy, three of them had the procedure done on the same day at The Men’s Clinic at UCLA

‘We all have two kids around the same age; we all decided we were perfectly happy with the size of our families.’

The timing was not coincidental. 

While the three ‘vascateers,’ as they call themselves, had their vasectomies just before the holidays, many men time their vasectomies for another reason.

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March tends to see a spike in vasectomies since, with plenty of sports on TV, they can spend a few days recuperating on the sofa with something to watch.

Indeed, this Sunday sees the start of March Madness, the NCAA college basketball national championship tournament – a nearly month-long extravaganza of college hoops action.

‘Each spring there are stories about men who time their vasectomies around the college basketball tournament,’ said Dr. Jesse Mills, a urologist and director of the men’s clinic at UCLA. 

‘The idea is to get the procedure done now so you can spend a few days on the couch recuperating while watching basketball games,’ he said.

Basilio (left) and Paul (right) high five as they pass in the hallway at The Men’s Clinic at UCLA

Paul Diaz plays with his one-year-old daughter. After having two happy, healthy girls, Paul teamed up with two friends to get vasectomies as a group

Vasectomies, though widely considered the most reliable and cost-effective form of birth control, remain unpopular. 

Only about one in 10 eligible men in the U.S. get the operation, according to figures released by the United Nations in 2015. 

Conversely, the rate is almost double that in Canada and the United Kingdom.

‘It’s an option that really deserves more consideration, especially when you compare it to sterilization surgeries for women,’ said Mills.

So one afternoon, in back-to-back-to-back appointments, Mills performed vasectomies on Diaz, Santangelo and Lambrechts. 

‘It was a great scenario,’ said Mills. ‘These guys wanted to not only support each other in this decision, they wanted to get it done so they could recuperate together and share their experiences on social media.’

Planning the procedures as a group allowed the three friends to broach a topic that can be overwhelming and uncomfortable to some. 

‘We talked about it for a while, and at the urging of our wives, we decided to take one for the team,’ said Lambrechts.

Dr. Jesse Mills (left) speaks with Paul Diaz (right) before his vasectomy

Vasectomies are outpatient procedures that take less than a half hour and are performed under local anesthesia, usually in a doctor’s office. 

Sterilization surgery for women, known as tubal ligation, requires women to undergo general anesthesia, is a much more invasive surgery that is performed at a hospital or surgical center and often requires an overnight stay.

Recovery times are also much longer for women who get tubal ligation and the failure rate is actually higher compared to vasectomies. 

According to the CDC, one in every two hundred tubal ligations fail, leading to unexpected pregnancies within a year, more than three times the rate as vasectomies.

‘Our wives had been through so much by giving birth to our children,’ added Santangelo, ‘we figured it was a much easier option for us to do this, so we did. It was easy.’