Men who feel like they’re done having children may be looking into getting a Planned Parenthood Vasectomy to protect themselves and their partner. Once this process is over, they need to make sure that they collect a sperm sample to send to their doctor. This sample will ensure that the surgery worked and that their semen is sperm-free. The following process helps to streamline your collection and ensures that everything goes as smoothly as possible for your needs as a person.

Protect Yourself During Your Waiting Period

Too many men make the mistake of rushing into unprotected sex with their partner after a Planned Parenthood Vasectomy because they believe that these surgeries are always successful. And while it is true that the success rate of this process is very high, there is always a small risk that yours did not take for some reason. That’s why sperm samples are collected in the first place – to protect you from this issue.

As a result, you and your partner should still use contraceptives during the period before you donate your sperm. After the waiting period suggested by your doctor for your first ejaculation and sex session, you should wear condoms or have your partner use birth control during this period. Again, the risk of her getting pregnant is quite low after this surgery. But it has happened in the past.

Talk to your partner about the necessities of this step to make sure that she understands the need. Most women will fully understand why these steps must be taken and will adapt to them accordingly. If not, you may find yourself sleeping on the couch for a few weeks until you’re ready to donate your sperm. It is best, however, to have a somewhat active sex life during this period in general.

Know When It is Time

After your surgery is over, you need to wait a certain amount of time before you collect your semen. You cannot collect it too soon because this process takes some time to go into effect. In essence, there may be some sperm left in your penis that could come out and ruin your test. Instead, it is important to wait a certain amount of time and a certain number of ejaculations to make sure you are clean.

Typically, you need to wait 12 weeks and 20 ejaculations after your Planned Parenthood Vasectomy to get the best results. In this situation, you don’t need to ejaculate 20 times in 12 weeks or less before you can go. And if you ejaculate 20 times before you hit 12 weeks, that doesn’t mean you’re ready to go either. Essentially, you need to go when you’ve hit both of these milestones, whenever they occur.

So if you ejaculate 20 times in the first four weeks after your surgery, you still need to wait until 12 weeks have passed. Or if 12 weeks have passed and you’ve only ejaculated 10 times, it is important to reach that 20 thresholds. And before you collect any semen after you’ve met these limits, it is important to NOT ejaculate for two whole days before you collect the semen for the doctor.

Collecting the Sample

After your Planned Parenthood Vasectomy, your doctor will give you a handful of paperwork and other items that are necessary for your recovery process. However, they will also give you a small tube – or can give you one later – that you will use to collect your semen. This tube should remain sealed and closed before you collect any semen to ensure that it doesn’t get contaminated in any way.

Make sure that you also don’t open up the tube and wash out the yellow powder inside of it. This powder is essential because it helps to stop bacteria from growing throughout your semen. Bacteria will contaminate your sample and make it much less accurate. Instead, only open up your tube when you are ready to masturbate and ejaculate into the tube. Doing so ensures that it remains safe.

Keep the tube sealed until just before you are ready to ejaculate. Carefully open up the top and collect your semen, trying to avoid the inside of the tube if possible. Once you have collected enough semen, you can seal the tube and place it in the plastic biohazard bag included with the tube. Tear off the identification sheet and place it in the side pouch to ensure your semen can be tracked.

Take the Sample Back

At this point after your Planned Parenthood Vasectomy, you have collected your semen sample and are ready to take it back to your doctor. There are a few different steps that you can take here. You can hand-deliver it to the office to make this process smoother. Make sure that the bag is sealed up properly so that the semen sample cannot be seen – hospitals may balk at this situation.

If you live far away from your surgical area or don’t want to travel there, you can also place your sample in the pre-addressed envelope included with your initial recovery paperwork. This envelope is fully sealed and won’t show off the sample in any way that may be embarrassing. Make sure that you put the proper amount of stamps on it to ensure that it goes through the mail with no difficulty.

Wait at least a few weeks or so after you deliver your sample to ensure that you don’t run into any complications. Typically, it will take anywhere from 3-5 days for the sample to get to the office. Then, it will get into a line behind other samples and may take some time to get processed. Make sure that you continue to have protected sex until your doctor confirms that your semen is sperm-free.

How We Can Help

As you can see, collecting semen after your Planned Parenthood Vasectomy is not a difficult process. However, it requires you to be very careful to ensure that you don’t contaminate the sample by touching the tube with your skin or taking any other steps that may be problematic. If you feel uncertain about your sample collection, don’t hesitate to contact us at SimpleVas® Vasectomy right away to learn more. Our experts will help you fully understand what you need to do to get the best results here.