It’s been almost 20 years since a marketing master stroke by the Oregon Urology Institute established March Madness as one of the most popular times to book a vasectomy.
The pitch went something like this: For men looking to park themselves on the couch during the tournament’s jam-packed early rounds, there’s no better excuse than doctor’s orders to stay put with a bag of frozen peas.
“It’s snip city,” the clinic quipped in a radio spot, playing off Portland’s Rip City nickname.
But what about Snipsburgh?
Urologists in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas say vasectomies are in high demand during the opening days of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — no advertising campaign required. March Madness play-in games started Tuesday, but the tournament starts in earnest Thursday.
Kevin Bordeau, a urologist at St. Clair Health in Mt. Lebanon, has done as many as 18 vasectomies in a day this time of year. Appointments also tend to cluster around the Masters and U.S. Open golf tournaments.
Men look forward to the guilt-free sports marathons, in his experience.
“It makes more guys interested in having a vasectomy than you’d think,” Bordeau said.
The 15-minute procedure divides and seals the vas deferens to keep sperm from entering the semen. Doctors numb the area and make a small incision or hole in the scrotum to access the ducts. More than 500,000 vasectomies are performed in the U.S. each year, according to widely cited estimates.
Vasectomies are a highly effective and permanent form of birth control (reversals aren’t guaranteed to work).
Recovery is quick, if uncomfortable. Men are usually in for at least 48 hours of ice, over-the-counter pain relievers and — crucial to the appeal of so-called Vas Madness — rest.
Most patients can get the snip on a Thursday or Friday and be back to work by Monday.
Dr. Carl Bruning, a urologist at Suburban Urologic Associates in Monroeville, finds men often need a little extra push to get a vasectomy, like a referral from a friend or 68-team basketball tournament broadcast to their living room.
“There’s a lot of fear factor involved,” Bruning said.
He has six vasectomies scheduled Thursday, a few more than usual.
Scoring an appointment during March Madness takes some planning.
Suburban Urologic Associates is booked at least six weeks out. Allegheny Health Network urologist Dr. Jordan Allen said six months could pass between a patient’s initial phone call and procedure.
There might be more requests for vasectomy appointments in March, but not more time slots, Allen said.
Vas Madness isn’t just anecdotal. A study in the journal Urology looked at vasectomy data from 2007 to 2015 and found March was the most common time of year for the minor surgery along with the end of the year. Elective procedures tend to spike late in the year, since patients have already met their deductibles.
At this point, the March Madness vasectomy rush has become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” because of media reports, according to Dr. Zachary Werner, a urologist at WVU Medicine. Werner also sees an increase in vasectomies around the start of the tournament.
He tells patients a couple of things before they get the snip.
One is recovery can be a rare chance to veg out.
And two, they’re doing their partner a service. Tubal ligation is the main female sterilization method, and the tube-tying procedure is less effective and more invasive.
“If you and your partner were thinking about a permanent form of sterilization, I’d like to thank you for taking this on yourself,” he says.
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