The risk of infection from vasectomy is thankfully very low. Less than 1 in 100 men develop an infection after the procedure. But even so, we want to do all we can to make sure this number stays as low as possible. There are times to be a risk taker, but not when it comes to your balls.
This is where you, our budding contraception hero, have a part to play. See bugs love living in hair, and hair can grow, well, everywhere! In particular, the hair on your man sack is a perfect place for bugs to practice their Olympic winning dive into the wound made during your vasectomy. So, it’s not rocket science that shaving your ball sac before your vasectomy is a grand idea. No hair, no bugs.
However, it’s not quite as simple as that. Shaving is good yes, but only when paired with proper timing. When you shave particularly delicate areas of your body, you can cause microscopic cuts on the skin. And surprise, surprise, bugs love this just as much as hair. This means shaving on the day of your vasectomy is likely to cause just as much issue as not shaving at all.
The solution is to shave 2-3 days before your Snip. And bingpot! The hair is gone, and the skin has had time to heal and become bug free.
So, what do you do if you forget to shave? Does this mean you have to cancel your appointment? No, not at all. Look, even us men can be human sometimes and forget things. Hard to believe, but true. If you forget to shave 2-3 days before your Snip, then we recommend that you don’t shave at all. Full fuzz is better than a fresh shave in this instance, and not shaving doesn’t mean you will get an infection. As we said, this is all about lowering that chance of infection (which is already stupid low).
If you’ve been looking around at vasectomy providers, you might have seen some supply pre-procedure antibiotics as an additional way to reduce the chance of infection. This isn’t something we do. As the OG vasectomy clinic in Aotearoa, we’ve performed a fair few thousand Snips and are confident there is no benefit to prescribing antibiotics before the procedure. But you don’t just need to take our word for it! There is literature to support our decision. In fact, there was even a massive international study done of over 100,000 men which showed that antibiotics do not prevent infection.
So, apart from keeping up good general hygiene, we recommend you shave 2-3 days before your Snip and then leave everything alone. From there it should go as smoothly as your scrotum.