“I regret my vasectomy”
The story of my vasectomy reversal
Thomas Eads, M.D.

My background
I grew up as an only child in a very loving and wonderful family. Growing up I had little exposure to large families and learned that the “normal” family has about two children in it. Some families have three children, but families with four or more children are considered "large". I also thought that in smaller families you could provide more for the children you do have. So when I got married, my mindset was to have two children.

I also grew up during the “post-pill” era when birth control became the norm. Nearly everyone used birth control during their lives. Most would use birth control before marriage and then stop to have a couple of children and then re-institute birth control to stop having children. Growing up in this climate I didn’t question whether it was right or wrong, because it was so prevalent.

Our experience with birth control
Before our marriage on July 10th, 1993, and during the first few years of marriage we used birth control pills, diaphragms, condoms, spermicidal jelly, and coitus interruptus in various combinations to prevent pregnancy. I did not realize at the time that birth control pills exert their action by thinning the lining of the uterus and preventing implantation, thus making them abortifacient agents. I was told in my medical training that they inhibited ovulation [actually they diminish the frequency of ovulation, but do not inhibit it] and changed the cervical mucus, thus preventing the sperm from making it through the cervix. If only I would have picked up a PDR and read it, it was right there in black and white. Maybe it would have affected our thinking….
The birth control pill caused a whole host of side-effects in Misha, as did the diaphragm and condoms. Spermicidal jelly caused me a lot of problems. This left us with coitus interruptus as our primary means of birth control for a while.

We had Eleen in 1996 and Corbin in 1998. Even after we became Christians in 1999, we continued to use birth control for two main reasons: 1) We wanted to; because pregnancy would have been inconvenient and 2) Everyone in the church that we knew practiced some form of birth control, with vasectomy being the most common method.

I say that “we” wanted to use birth control….let me clarify that: I was the one pushing for birth control. And because I didn’t want any more than two children, Misha abdicated to my decision, but deep inside she wanted more children. I don’t think she saw a moral problem with birth control, but she did want more children than I did.

The events leading up to my vasectomy
In 2000, when Corbin was almost 2 years old, I had my vasectomy. For nearly one year [beginning just after my conversion] I prayed for wisdom as to whether I should have a vasectomy or not. I sought the council of three prominent church leaders and elders in our Bible-believing church at the time. All three of them told me that having a vasectomy was “OK”. i.e. if I want to do it, then I should do it. One elder told me that it really didn’t matter one way or the other and just do what seemed right to me. Another elder told me it was a matter of conscience, implying that if my conscience said it was fine, then do it. The other elder was less specific, but gave his blessing. None of the three elders opened the Bible to show me ANY Biblical principles that I could use to make my decision. Not one Bible verse was quoted to me. Not a single one.

I was grounded enough in my faith at the time to realize that the Bible should have SOMETHING to say about such a colossal decision. After all, this was a permanent decision [at least I thought it was!] and if God has not given us help and direction for the colossal decisions, then where is the relationship? So I consulted my Bible. Ignoring nearly every text that dealt with family size, birth control, and God’s plan for the family, I homed in on Matthew 19:11-12. In response to the disciples’ amazement at Christ’s depiction of marriage as permanent, Jesus said:
11"Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.
12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it." [NIV]

The words “have renounced marriage” in the original greek are: “have made themselves eunuchs”.
I reasoned that therefore some people make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven and so vasectomies must not be all bad.
I made three huge errors in this reasoning:
1) I wasn’t having a vasectomy for the kingdom of heaven! I was having a vasectomy because I didn’t want any more children and it would be more convenient to become sterile.
2) Every matter must be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. [Deut 19:15, Matthew 18:16, and 2 Corinthians 13:1]. It is WRONG to establish a theology based upon one verse. That is how cults work and it is bad Bible interpretation. Even the two or three testimony principle is found three times in Scripture!
3) The context of Jesus’ response was in terms of marriage, not sterilization. And Jesus’ comments that some are born without a desire to marry, others are forced to stay single, and others renounce their urges to become missionaries can be supported by many other texts in Scripture.

What I have since learned is that even though I prayed and sought wisdom, I was really fishing for justification to do what I wanted. And that is wrong. God does care about the family…He created it! And my desire to take the reigns out of His hands and put them into mine was the heart of the flesh.

My vasectomy
In 2000 I had my vasectomy. It was a horrible procedure. There was a lot of pain during it and I prayed non-stop just to make it through the pain. Afterwards I had chronic pain that came in waves and then would let up a bit. I now know that this is called “post-vasectomy syndrome” and is due to build up of sperm in the testicles with granuloma and inflammatory changes. I had to see a urologist several times for pain and swelling and even have a testicular ultrasound to rule out a tumor! Most of these problems were in the first year. The pain continued nearly daily, to a lesser extent though, until the reversal.

The beginning of repentance
In 2003, Misha and I were walking down the streets of Brown County, Indiana. She was looking at baby dolls and said, “I wanna baby”. I said, “Fine! Get a baby” And she said, “You don’t understand…I wanna baby.” And I said, “Misha it’s OK, I know they are expensive, but if you want one, buy one!” To which she said, “I WANT A BABY!” And I said, “You want a WHAT?!?!?!!?”
After that, the Lord began to work on my mind and I began to slowly see that I was selfish for wanting no more children when Misha did. I saw that children are a blessing from the Lord [Psalm 127:3] and I prayed that my heart would be changed to how HE wanted it. Eventually we decided upon adoption. The Lord blessed us with Lydia in February of 2004. You can read about our adoption story here. Then the Lord moved us into the sphere of influence of large families who did not use birth control. Some had 9 or 10 children. We both were mesmerized by their families and the blessings God had given them. We both began to see that for convenience and selfish reasons we had stopped our family. We had deprived ourselves of the rich blessing of many children and the promise of a future with many many grandchildren. We had traded family for present day “freedom” to do what we “wanted”. God’s first command to the family was to be fruitful and to multiply. No other principle or example in Scripture can be found to undue that command to the family. Yes, there are some who will renounce marriage [and the children that usually come with marriage] for missions work. There are some who cannot have children. But the normal plan for the family is fruitfulness. We couldn’t see that because we were blinded by our own desires.

The events leading up to the reversal
During 2004 and the first part of 2005, we were toying around with the idea of a vasectomy reversal. Not yet fully convinced that it was a sin to cut of the Godly seed and alter my anatomy for convenience, we were contemplating adoption vs. reversal mainly because we wanted more children. We were convinced at that point that children are a blessing and we greatly desired that blessing from the Lord!

But there was one fear holding us back….Misha had a lot of medical problems that had led to her being on 4 prescription medications. These medications wouldn’t be safe in pregnancy and so we seemed to have a problem. Meanwhile, the Lord had also shown us that we needed to care more for our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit and to nurture them like a car owner would care for a new Ferrari. I began to study diligently about Misha’s medical problems and we thoroughly changed our diet to whole, natural foods and we started an intense program of supplementation. You can read a brief overview of our thoughts on better health here. One day Misha told me that she was completely off of one of her long-time prescription medications and it hit me that she would soon be off all of them! The Lord was clearly at work!

As time went on, we became convinced of the sin we had committed in 2000 with the vasectomy and so we decided in April, 2005 to schedule a vasectomy reversal. For my part, there were five reasons why I decided to have a vasectomy reversal:
1) In the hopes that we would have more children
2) To put control back in God’s hands
3) To “undo” the sin of my past. Some sins cannot be “undone”, but this could be. I wanted to put action to my repentance.
4) To experience the delight of pregnancy
5) In the hopes that my post-vasectomy pain would go away

The reversal
On July 22, 2005, I had my vasectomy reversal. It was performed by Dr. Lawrence Grey in Tampa, Florida. It took a long time to get into his schedule, but it was worth the wait. He did a wonderful job and the procedure was painless. It was done under a local with an oral medication to cause sleepiness. Amazingly, the reversal procedure was much more comfortable than the vasectomy!

What's happening now:
Read from the bottom-up for the rest of the story....

December 14, 2006
Misha is pregnant again and is 16 weeks along now. The baby appears to be healthy and we are praising Jesus for His blessing!! Children are a blessing and it is natural for humans to want to have as many as possible. We suppress that natural, God-given instinct when we choose "freedom" and "health" and "safety" and leisure and entertainment and money over children. Are not children eternal souls? Are not those souls the only thing which we will see in heaven which is currently on earth? What a blessing children are!

July 29th, 2006
The pregnancy was a "blighted ovum". This means that a placenta develops, but no baby. We are saddened, but know that God has control of it all. A miscarriage is ocurring now.

July 19, 2006
My wife is 8 weeks pregnant now and we praise God for the life He has created in her womb. This also lets us know that the reversal was a success.

April 28, 2006
Unfortunately Dr. Grey committed suicide today. I have a special place in my heart for him and am saddened by this news. He was a fine doctor and a joy to talk to. I wish I could have spent more time with him, getting to know him. Apparently he was found guilty in a malpractice case, and my heart especially goes out to him, because I also am a doctor and know the pain you feel in your heart when a patient is upset. Though I haven't been sued or accused of malpractice, I know it is a dreadful thing to experience. No doctor is perfect except Jesus and I praise Him for bringing me into Dr. Grey's life. He is missed by me, and I am sure he is missed by others as well. The news report covering Dr. Grey's case can be found here

November 6, 2005
It has been over 3 months since the reversal. We had hoped that we would get pregnant right away, but have been reminded again that it is God who is in control, and not us. That is actually a very comforting truth, but nevertheless we are still hoping for a new baby. Does God want us to adopt again? Is it just not time yet? We don't know those answers, but will be patient and wait on Him. One interesting development is that Misha has developed some menstrual irregularities that are proving to be fairly resistant to natural and medical therapies. If you would like, we would appreciate any prayers that you can lift up to Jesus on our behalf....Thank you!
By the way, I have NO pain or discomfort any more from either the reversal, or the aftermath of the vasectomy....praise Jesus!

September 23, 2005
It has been 2 months since the reversal. Any post-operative discomfort I did have is completely gone. I feel totally normal and healed now. I am nearly certain that all of my post-vasectomy syndrome pain is gone now. For that I am thankful to the Lord! With our first two children we were blessed with the ability to conceive very easily [our third child, Lydia, was adopted...you can read her adoption story here]. We had hoped (of course!) to conceive very quickly after the reversal. I suppose that is part of our impatient fleshly nature. We are very aware of the fact that it often takes couples several months to a year or more to conceive after a reversal. Nevertheless, we yearn for a newborn baby to hold and love. It seems that now more than ever I realize just how much I robbed myself and my family of the joys of having more children. A selfish decision made 5 years ago now haunts me. It is so comforting to know that Jesus forgives me of my sin and that He often restores the years lost to the locusts [Joel 2:25]. Perhaps the Lord will be willing to grant us more children. I have to keep reminding myself that I had this reversal to obey Jesus and to put the family planning in HIS control, not mine. It should, and is, His decision as to whether or not we have more children. Whatever happens, we praise Jesus!

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