Who chooses vasectomy in Rwanda? Survey data from couples who chose vasectomy, 2010-2012.

Background: Vasectomy is safe and highly effective; however, it remains an underused method of family planning (FP) in Africa. In view of this, three Rwandan physicians were trained in no-scalpel vasectomy with thermal cautery and fascial interposition on the prostatic end as vasectomy trainers in 2010, and this initiative has resulted in over 2900 vasectomy clients from February 2010 to December 2012.

Study Design: This cross-sectional descriptive study describes vasectomy clients (n=316) and their wives (n=300) from 15 randomly selected hospitals in Rwanda.

Strengthening vasectomy services in Rwanda: introduction of thermal cautery with fascial interposition.

Background: Recent developments in vasectomy research indicate that occluding the vas using cautery combined with fascial interposition (FI) significantly lowers failure rates and is an appropriate technology for low-resource settings. We report the introduction of this technique in Ministry of Health (MOH) vasectomy services in Rwanda.

Design: In February 2010, an international vasectomy expert trained three Rwandan physicians to become trainers in no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV) with thermal cautery and FI.