Kristin Conrad Brassell
Kristin Conrad Brassell wants more men to get vasectomies. So much so that she created a nonprofit organization and raised money to help pay for them.
Earlier this month, Plan V partnered with Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi to subsidize the procedures — the organization can offer them at $599 rather than $899 for the uninsured. For Brassell, it’s a tangible solution to Tennessee’s nearly total abortion ban.
“One quick, easy thing that a lot of people can do is get a vasectomy, because second to abstinence, it is the most effective form of birth control,” says Brassell, founder of Plan V. “If you’re living in red states that have extreme bans against abortion in place, and you have the ability to go out and get one, you are helping reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies, and thus you are reducing the rate of the need for abortion.”
Cost can be one barrier to a vasectomy, as the procedure can cost upwards of $1,000 for people without insurance. Many can’t swing that — especially people earning artists’ salaries or those who fall in Tennessee’s Medicaid expansion gap, Brassell points out. (Tennessee is one of 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid.) She tells the Scene she’d like to partner with other local providers and someday offer free or “pay what you can” procedures.
Another barrier to vasectomies is misconceptions about the procedure. Brassell says men sometimes even confuse it with circumcision (removal of the foreskin) or castration (removal of the testicles). The latter, she imagines, comes from men who have taken a dog to be neutered. Vasectomies are outpatient procedures that take around 15 minutes. The downtime following the procedure is 48 to 72 hours. Vasectomies should be considered permanent, and they take three to six months to be effective. Erections and sexual pleasure remain fully intact following the procedure.
Planned Parenthood's Nashville location
“The only thing you feel is the injection to numb your testicles,” Brassell says. “Like the pinch that most people are used to when you go to the dentist to get fillings, and you have an excuse for 48 hours to sit on the couch and watch TV.”
Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade, demand for vasectomies rose. Local clinics told the Scene of an anecdotal rise in interest in male birth control as well.
The local arm of Planned Parenthood, which offered surgical abortions prior to the ban, had to rethink its services following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. They added vasectomies in September 2023, and have done 37 procedures between the organization’s Nashville and Memphis locations during that time. (The Knoxville location recently reopened following its destruction due to arson.) One provider would travel between locations to offer vasectomies once per month, and the organization is in the process of credentialing another.
Planned Parenthood still offers much of what it always had, including contraception, STD testing, gender-affirming care and HIV care. However, one thing that Planned Parenthood can offer that many other clinics may not is a no-questions-asked policy for the procedure — even for young people who know they don’t want kids. The patient simply must be 18 or older to be eligible.
“For patients of reproductive age, finding a provider who will perform these services if someone is in their 20s … is often difficult, because providers question the patient,” says Aimee Lewis, chief development officer at Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. “At Planned Parenthood, we trust people to make the health decisions that are right for them, and so whatever someone’s reason for wanting a vasectomy, we trust that patient to know themselves and to make their own health care decisions.”
Brassell points out another more personal reason to get a vasectomy — it’s a way for men to look out for their female partners. Both tubal ligation (getting one’s “tubes tied”) and vasectomies are pretty low-risk, she says, but comparing the two, the former is higher risk, significantly more expensive and comes with a longer downtime. Women can also sometimes endure years of side effects from birth control, including pain from IUD insertions.
“There’s a lot of cool guys out there that I consider to be feminist, and they stepped up and they said, ‘This is one way I can help in the fight against what’s happening in our country,’” Brassell says. “Unfortunately, men like that are few and far between.”
