Greetings from Finland! I got my vasectomy yesterday at the age of 30. Starting from that age a Finn can get sterilized with just the approval of the doctor that's going to perform that surgery. That procedure was a huge relief in my life. It may sound weird to some but I rejected all kinds of intimate interest from women (even though I am a hetero male) until this point in life mostly because I always, since childhood, had that nagging fear of procreating which is something I really want to avoid as one could see ๐ Girls must have kind of thought I just don't really like females or something ๐คฃ Temporary contraception to prevent pregnancy is too unreliable to me in my personal case; I don't want a relationship where I would constantly worry about contraception failing. The contraceptive items could break, I couldn't know for sure if a woman has used her contraceptives; and some female contraceptives would carry too big of a health risk to her (I just cannot tolerate those risks to my prospective lady but want to cherish her).
I'll just have to wait a few months to hopefully get a negative lab test to show there are no cells to create offspring in that stuff. Then I can finally start looking for a spouse without fear of pulling a trolley around the balcony later on. I have realized lately that a relationship usually just doesn't work (not all cases of all people are such, however) if one of the partners is a childfree-minded individual and the other is not. So I think the only way to find happiness and longevity with a spouse in my case is to find a partner who is sterilized, too. I just know of too many cases of a person telling to their not-willing-to-reproduce partner that they don't want kids, either, and after basically building their life together, telling to that partner that maybe a kid would be a good thing after all and then divorcing.
This surgery was one of the best things to happen to me ever. I am really happy with my decision. However, some very conservative religious relatives and other such people around me might give me some nagging and whining if they somehow find out that I got sterilized. I still have my Christian faith like I used to, I just won't make kids. Marriage is not meant to be a Victorian era "Shut your eyes tight and think of England" kind of thing, anyway ๐
I had mine just two weeks ago (after three kids) and the most painful part was getting the anesthetic shot. From leaving the waiting room to walking out it took 40 minutes and I had zero pain. It's healing very nicely and everything still works. And you have to masturbate a lot on doctor's orders to "clear the pipes" as my doctor put it.