Some Californians are feeling the pinch from the sour economy in some unusual places.
Planned Parenthood of Southern California said requests for vasectomies were up more than 30 percent in the first three months of this year over the same period last year at its clinics in San Diego and Riverside counties. Perhaps not coincidentally, those are the epicenters of the foreclosure meltdown.
"The recession has created a new level of urgency among our clients," Vince Hall, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, told the New York Times. "We used to have a three- to six-week waiting period. Now men have to wait two-and-a-half months to get an appointment."
Helping spur demand, Hall said, might be the fact that unemployed men often qualify for free vasectomies under Family Pact, a California family planning program for low-income households.
Hits to the Web site vasectomy.com were up 17.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009 as well, with a 40 percent hike in the number of patient referrals to doctors, said Maya Wank, its chief operating officer. She told The Times that the growing Internet activity might indicate consumers were not simply gathering information, but want to take action.
A baby born in 2006 -- the latest year for which data are available -- will cost middle-income parents $260,000 by the time the child reaches 17; and that does not include college, according to the Agriculture Department.
Experts agree that from a practical and financial point of view, vasectomies are an ideal form of birth control. The procedure severs and seals the vas deferens, the tubes that carry sperm from the testicles to the penis.
The operation typically costs $500 to $1,000, but is usually covered by insurance, The Times reported.
