In over 30 years of practice, Dr. Errol Billinkoff rarely saw a man without kids come into his Winnipeg clinic to get a vasectomy. But since the pandemic began, he says it's become an almost daily occurrence.
And he's not alone. "At first, I thought I was the only one who was noticing this," Billinkoff, who brought a no-scalpel vasectomy procedure to Winnipeg in the early 1990s, told CBC News in a November interview. "But I am part of an international chat group where doctors who do vasectomies participate and the topic came up, and it's like everybody notices it.
" Other Canadian doctors, like Dr. Pierre Boucher in Montreal and Dr. Neil Pollock in Vancouver, perform thousands of vasectomies a year.
Both told CBC news they've noticed a similar trend at their practices. Ottawa's 'vasectomy king' reflects on the past 30 years — and why he called it a career Does anyone still want kids? Families are shrinking as people have fewer children — or none at all Their observations coincide with Canada's steeply declining fertility rate. In 2023, that rate was 1.
26 children born per woman – Canada's lowest on record, according to Statistics Canada . In 2019, the fertility rate was 1.47.
Economy, climate change factors All three doctors say they've noticed three overarching reasons men who don't have kids give for getting the snip: the economy, climate change and wanting more freedom. More men without kids are getting vasectomies, doctors say. Here's why 29 minutes ago Duration 6:43.
