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'I am still the man I used to be'
BBC News
April 01, 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4860774.stm

Ghanaian Kwaku Antwi-Boasiako, 35, finance administrator, told the BBC's African Perspective programme why he chose to have a vasectomy, ignoring African culture where a man's fertility is highly valued.

decided to have a vasectomy because my wife, Femi and I didn't want any more children.

We already have two.

Femi is currently using an implant which is due to be removed in six months' time. We thought that if we didn't go for a vasectomy then she would need another implant or some other method.

We liked the fact that vasectomy is a long-term form of birth control - although a reversal operation is possible. We want to make sure we don't have any accidents along the way.

Equipment
At the hospital in Accra, the urology section is close to the maternity ward. I heard a lot of screams from women who were delivering and that brought back memories of the day when my wife had our son and I had to be by her side.

That experience was a lot for me and the recollection all the more reaffirmed my decision.

After changing into a gown I was ordered to go through to surgery.

I could see all the equipment, the tweezers and all the needles especially which scared me a bit as I knew they were going to puncture me.

I saw the scissors and wondered to myself, is this what's going to do the job?

Quick
Momentarily I wondered if it was going to be painful but I recalled all I had heard and been told and advised and stopped myself from worrying.

I tried not to show a lot of emotion because I had decided that this is what I was going to do and I didn't want look like I wasn't up for it.

I squeezed my face and lay still.

I wouldn't say that the anaesthesia was that effective because when the doctor started opening up with the scissors I could feel a sharp pain.

I felt the pain in my lower abdomen. But it wasn't enough to make me scream.

The whole procedure only took about 10 minutes. They dressed the wound and then I got up and changed into my own clothes.

That was it. I paid and walked out to my car and drove back to the office.

After two weeks, the wound had completely healed and there was no pain at all.

Reasons
My father had 10 children and I think that how he had to care for so many of us influenced me to take this decision.

When he and my mum had their last but one child, I was still in secondary school really struggling to make ends meet and not having what I needed as a student.

There were nights when I went without food - I virtually starved.

And yet they had this extra child, which directly affected me because they did not have enough to go round everybody.

For my father himself, if he hadn't have had so many children he would have enjoyed his retirement benefits much better than he did.

I don't think he ever enjoyed them himself. I don't want that to happen to me and Femi.

What makes a man, a real man, is not how many children he is able to have but whether he is able to take very good care of the children that he does bring into the world.

The operation has not had any effect at all on my sexual life and there is no difference between now and before the vasectomy.

I am still the man I used to be.

*You can listen to Kwaku in the BBC's African Perspective programme broadcast in East and West Africa on Saturday 1 April 2006 at 1906 GMT, and again on Sunday 2 April 2006 at 1106 and 2106 GMT.

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