Many vasectomy reversal doctors list their general success rates on their websites. Some couples have felt like they have “done their research” by looking on websites or directly asking doctors what their success rates are. Unfortunately, there is no way to verify the accuracy of these success rate claims (my own included) and you literally have to trust that what they are telling you is accurate. Due to patient privacy rules, no one can ever go and review a doctor’s charts to see if what they claim their success rates to be are really true. Even with outdated techniques, a certain (lower) percent of reversals are going to be successful, so the listing of ‘testimonials’ by patients is not an accurate indicator of a surgeon’s success rates either.
Essentially, any licensed physician of any subspecialty can make a nice website and claim whatever reversal success rate that they want with absolutely no control or oversight. There does exist, however, good published data in national peer-reviewed medical journals on the excellent outcomes of microscopic vasectomy reversals when performed by fellowship-trained urologists (an example is the Vasovasostomy Study Group published in the Journal of Urology [Belker AM, et al. March 145(3): 505-11]). For these published studies, follow-up semen analysis results were reviewed and success rate results calculated under the patient privacy guidelines of what is called an IRB (Institutional Review Board), which allow accurate reversal success data to be obtained while patient privacy is protected. If you choose a urologist who is fellowship trained in microsurgery, you at minimum know that he has had extensive training in techniques with these proven excellent results.
The techniques of the low-cost non-urologists (to my knowledge) have no published data and their only ‘proof’ is that they ask you to trust that their short surgical procedures under local anesthesia somehow have the same outcomes as the meticulous 2.5-3 hour procedures of fellowship-trained experts. I find it interesting that many of these non-urologists have a religious-based theme to their practices, potentially to try and provide themselves with more perceived credibility. A religious calling to help patients in medical need is certainly commendable, but I am always left wondering why these non-urologists do not instead choose to help their fellow man in the field of medicine in which they actually received expert training.
Non-urologists are not the only vasectomy reversal doctors on the internet with questionable success rate claims. You can find urologists who claim up to 95% success rates for all reversal patients, no matter how many years out from their vasectomy or if they have had previous unsuccessful reversal attempts. Universal success rates this high are way higher than the published success rates of the leading fellowship-trained experts in the country, AND sometimes supposedly achieved with a quick two hour or less procedure. Maybe such claims are true, or could they just be a marketing ploy to get people to travel to their facility? Again, there is no way to verify these claims- you just have to take their word for it. However, when every year I personally consult with multiple patients who are seeking second opinions following failed vasectomy reversals by these doctors who quote such extremely high success rates, it gives me sincere doubts as to the accuracy of these claims.
