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That we are in a serious recession...
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/health/11patient.html">Uptick in Vasectomies Seen as Sign of Recession</a>
<em>Last November I learned, to my great surprise, that I was pregnant. At age 47, I was not exactly trying to conceive.
My husband and I were conflicted:
Another baby ? how wonderful!
Another child ? how stressful! How risky! How EXPENSIVE!
With the economy in a free fall, this seemed no time to have a baby.
When the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at seven weeks, we were sad. But also relieved. My husband?s only half-joking response was, ?It?s time for a vasectomy.?
Turns out we were not alone in our thinking. Urologists and clinics have noticed an uptick in recent months in the number of men requesting vasectomies.
It is too early to proclaim a bona fide trend in elective sterilization, because no organization regularly tracks the number of vasectomies performed on an annual or even a monthly basis. The most recent comprehensive data come from a study published in The Journal of Urology in 2006, which estimated that about 527,000 vasectomies were performed in this country each year.
But the recent anecdotal data, if they hold, would have a historical parallel in the Great Depression, when the birth rate fell sharply.
As this recession continues, it is understandable that more people might hesitate to expand their families. 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, according to the Agriculture Department. And that doesn?t include college.
In Southern California, Planned Parenthood says that compared with last year?s first quarter, requests for vasectomies were up more than 30 percent in the first three months of this year at its clinics in San Diego and Riverside Counties, where 64 of the procedures were done.
?The recession has created a new level of urgency among our clients,? said Vince Hall, a spokesman. ?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, he 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. </em>
And do not even think of moving this to OT, this is behavioral economics at its finest.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/health/11patient.html">Uptick in Vasectomies Seen as Sign of Recession</a>
<em>Last November I learned, to my great surprise, that I was pregnant. At age 47, I was not exactly trying to conceive.
My husband and I were conflicted:
Another baby ? how wonderful!
Another child ? how stressful! How risky! How EXPENSIVE!
With the economy in a free fall, this seemed no time to have a baby.
When the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at seven weeks, we were sad. But also relieved. My husband?s only half-joking response was, ?It?s time for a vasectomy.?
Turns out we were not alone in our thinking. Urologists and clinics have noticed an uptick in recent months in the number of men requesting vasectomies.
It is too early to proclaim a bona fide trend in elective sterilization, because no organization regularly tracks the number of vasectomies performed on an annual or even a monthly basis. The most recent comprehensive data come from a study published in The Journal of Urology in 2006, which estimated that about 527,000 vasectomies were performed in this country each year.
But the recent anecdotal data, if they hold, would have a historical parallel in the Great Depression, when the birth rate fell sharply.
As this recession continues, it is understandable that more people might hesitate to expand their families. 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, according to the Agriculture Department. And that doesn?t include college.
In Southern California, Planned Parenthood says that compared with last year?s first quarter, requests for vasectomies were up more than 30 percent in the first three months of this year at its clinics in San Diego and Riverside Counties, where 64 of the procedures were done.
?The recession has created a new level of urgency among our clients,? said Vince Hall, a spokesman. ?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, he 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. </em>
And do not even think of moving this to OT, this is behavioral economics at its finest.
