Dr. Stephen Jones, a urologist at the Cleveland Clinic, was having a very busy day.  

“My staff came to me and said, what’s happening?” Jones told CNN. “Why are we suddenly having an explosion in guys asking for vasectomies?”

Whoah. We all know that many people have lost their jobs or are worried about losing them. So they’re taking their kids out of daycare, eating out less and forgoing the annual vacation, all to cut costs.

It turns out some are more literally going for the cut. Babies are expensive. Then there’s college to think about.

Since the stockmarket tanked last fall, vasectomies are up 50 percent at the Cleveland Clinic. People are not just worried about the cost of bigger families, they’re worried about losing their insurance and asking doctors to get them in quickly in case they lose their jobs.

Sales of other contraceptives are up too. Nielsen reported that condom sales were up 5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to the same period a year earlier. Condom sales were up 6 percent in January. This USA Today report implies that bad times put people in the mood for more sex but hmmmm, I’m willing to bet it has to do with more people trying to avoid pregnancy.

Cribsheeters, anybody thinking twice about a new baby?

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 11:02 am and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.