Permanent Birth Control in 10 Minutes

HOUSTON -- The balance of power may be shifting in that age-old debate over permanent birth control: namely, who gets snipped?

“Up until now, it would be almost a slam dunk,” says Baylor OB-GYN Dr. Robert Zurawin. “Man and woman would say, ‘well we don't want to have any children; what do we do?’ The woman says, ‘I've had the children, now it's your turn.’”

And Zurawin says women usually held the trump card, since a vasectomy is generally less invasive than a tubal ligation.

But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for men: a permanent birth control device for women that can be implanted during a lunch hour.

It’s called “Essure,” and it requires a 10-minute procedure in the office, under local anesthesia, says Zurawin.

Former Olympic skier Picabo Street had the device implanted, with her husband’s blessing.

“His first reason for supporting it was that he didn't have to have a vasectomy, that was the big thing,” Street tells FOX 26.

Using an endoscope, Dr. Zurawin can place an Essure micro-insert, shaped like a tiny spring, into each fallopian tube.

The devices block the fallopian tubes, preventing pregnancy.

The procedure is better than 99-percent effective, says Zurawin.

And recovery time is measured in minutes, not days or weeks.

That may give men new ammunition in this battle of the sexes over sterilization.

“It’s evened-up the game again, I suppose,” says Zurawin.

But if that “game” ends in a decision to go with Essure, both sides had better be sure; the procedure is not reversible.