Australia has the second-highest rate of vasectomies in the world, and now it looks like there's a growing trend among vegans to get the snip in order to 'benefit the environment'.
Speaking to Focus on ABC Radio, Dr Nick Demediuk - aka 'Dr Snip' performs just over a tenth of the vasectomies recorded in Australia.
He said that there has been an increase of 18-28-year-old men - particularly vegans - opting for vasectomies in order to 'cut down the population and consumption.'
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"We've moved on from having two, three, four kids to having no kids or one child and having a vasectomy, because of the environmental impacts that they perceive that the human race is causing," Dr Demediuk explained.
"Some people are very concerned about overpopulation. And they describe having a child as being worse than a full year of you reusing and recycling, so a lifetime of reusing recycling.
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"So they're now really limiting their family size without having the one-child policy to them doing it voluntarily to one child."
Asked if there were definitive studies on why Australia has such a high rate of getting the snip, Dr Demediuk said that while no such study has been conducted, it's likely correlated to Australia's approach to education.
"You find that as populations become educated, the acceptance for the snip becomes higher and higher with time," he added.
Dr Demediuk also explained that different countries have vastly different feelings on vasectomies, which is an influential factor when looking at rates around the world.
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"There are some different cultural barriers," he began. "So in, in Europe, in France, Italy, Spain, it was illegal. In fact, it was illegal in France to get a vasectomy until about 2001 because it was thought of male genital mutilation.
"But as time has gone on, it's being embraced slowly in those countries as well."
He added: "In countries like South America, vasectomies are increasing almost exponentially, whereas in Australia, we've got a gradual increase...but it's a very slow increase compared to that in South America."
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Psychiatrist Dr Tanveer Ahmed agreed with Dr Demediuk and said 'traditionally masculine cultures' have far lower rates of vasectomies.
"I suspect the far less likely to go through with this procedure. When I was researching this, I found out it was almost like it was almost non-existent in a continent like Africa and that certainly overlaps with the education factor that [[Dr Demediuk] was alluding to," he said.
"In some of the more traditional cultures, there's a notion of fertility kind of belonging to the clan, that it doesn't even belong to just your wife - it's a communal thing that the male fertility is this sort of asset of the entire clan."
Dr Ahmed also added that the changing sociopolitical landscape could be a reason as to why younger men are opting for the surgery.
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"A vasectomy has become sort of a political act, whether it be as a vegan or environmentalist. It's almost becoming a signal of being like a male feminist, as well.".
Featured Image Credit: UnsplashTopics: Interesting, Vegan