Honest opinion here, I was nervous as heck about getting one and really wanted to avoid it if at all possible but looking back now it really was not a big deal. The worst part was when you are on the table and having it done, there are 2 moments where you get a sharp pain that shoots up through your body and you can figure out why that is on your own I'm sure. Recovery wasn't bad, bag of frozen peas several times a day and some Tylenol. I was a little worried about possibly having an infection as I had a friend that got infection after his and said it was the worst pain he has ever had. I had mine done on a Thursday and went back to work on Monday. For about a week I had some level of soreness but I think that is because I do a lot of walking during the day for my job and all the extra moving around probably irritated it. First 2 or 3 days back at work I got the bag of peas out when I got home to ice down. I did go on some antibiotics about mid week because my incision site was still a little raw and oozing so they wanted to make sure it didn't get infected but I think about 7-10 days after I had the operation had no pain at all.
One thing I highly recommend when you do it is wear compression shorts for about a week or 2. Trust me you will notice a difference if you don't and it really helps out with the healing process. Be diligent with icing for the first 2 days too. I had hoped to avoid the operation as my wife and I knew we were stopping at 2 and she had already had a C-section for our 1st kid so our plan was to have her tubes tied when they delivered our 2nd child. Well we found out that Mercy changed its policy about that since they are a Catholic hospital and you had to meet a certain criteria for them to do that. Our OB doesn't deliver at Methodist who doesn't have the same policy so I just had to bite the bullet. So that is another thing to think about if you think your wife getting tubes tied is an option because if you deliver at Mercy they likely won't allow it so she would have to have a 2nd procedure at another hospital later which really isn't practical because your recovery time compared to hers for an operation is much longer and more painful.
One thing I highly recommend when you do it is wear compression shorts for about a week or 2. Trust me you will notice a difference if you don't and it really helps out with the healing process. Be diligent with icing for the first 2 days too. I had hoped to avoid the operation as my wife and I knew we were stopping at 2 and she had already had a C-section for our 1st kid so our plan was to have her tubes tied when they delivered our 2nd child. Well we found out that Mercy changed its policy about that since they are a Catholic hospital and you had to meet a certain criteria for them to do that. Our OB doesn't deliver at Methodist who doesn't have the same policy so I just had to bite the bullet. So that is another thing to think about if you think your wife getting tubes tied is an option because if you deliver at Mercy they likely won't allow it so she would have to have a 2nd procedure at another hospital later which really isn't practical because your recovery time compared to hers for an operation is much longer and more painful.