March Madness is here, and you know what that means: vasectomies

March Madness: The yearly college basketball super-phenomenon is finally here. The teams have been chosen, the brackets have been filled, and the appointments to surgically remove the ability to father children have been made.

That’s right. March Madness may be known for its stunning displays of basketball skill, but among surgeons, it’s known for something else entirely: a huge surge in vasectomy appointments.

“Major sporting events are a popular time for men to schedule a vasectomy because we advise them to take it easy for two to three days after the procedure,” Jim Dupree, an assistant professor of urology at Michigan Medicine said in a news release.

The procedure, an increasingly popular choice for male birth control, is quick and simple, but can cause lingering pain and soreness that makes it uncomfortable to walk and work for a few days.

“For most men, this means sitting on the couch in front of their television, and sporting events offer them something to watch while resting,” Dupree wrote.

“There are several times when you can predict numbers will go up,” Dr. Jerome Parnell of Capital Urological Associates/WSP in Raleigh told the News & Observer. “March Madness is one, the Friday before Super Bowl Sunday, and then between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But (March Madness) is by far the busiest time.”

It’s true. A recent study found urologists performed 30 percent more vasectomy procedures during March Madness than in a typical week.

Ajay Nangia, associate professor of urology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, told the News & Observer urologists were using the link as a “good marketing strategy.”

Offices have run ads like the ones below advertising their services, cheekily encouraging men to “lower [their] seed” during the tournament.

Some men even go have the procedure together to support each other “taking one for the team,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

“It’s almost like a fraternity mentality, where one guy says they may do it,” Dr. Ernest Sussman told the paper. “All of a sudden they have the energy or courage.” Four men in Raleigh who went together to have the procedure even wrote their own song:

Oh, we have kids that we adore

but our wives don’t want any more

so they sent us to the snippy store

It’s Friday, we’re getting a vasectomy!

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 11:09 AM with the headline "March Madness is here, and you know what that means: vasectomies."