Today we’d like to introduce you to Esgar Guarin.
Hi Esgar, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I grew up in Colombia, where I completed my initial medical training. After fulfilling all of the requirements for full licensure, I traveled to the US with my wife while she was in training at the University of Maryland, working in immunology.
I completed residency training in Family Medicine, in Baltimore between 2003 and 2006. I was deeply interested in the care of pregnancies, children, and young families. Helping navigate the healthcare system for families was a personal commitment I felt I could fulfill through that specialty. However, it was evident that my proficiency in the care of pregnancies could be further improved. That’s why, after being accepted at the school of public health at Brown University in Providence, RI, I started a 2-year fellowship in Maternal and Child Health. I gained the proficiency and skills necessary to establish a solid and confident obstetric-pediatric practice.
All along during my training, I was fascinated by the simplicity, yet powerful effect, of vasectomies. I saw how such a quick procedure could be a great alternative to the more invasive procedure performed in females for sterilization. I encountered it to be a great reproductive public health tool that could be exploited for the greater good and, most importantly to try to achieve some level of reproductive equity and equality.
Unfortunately, I found much reluctance, on behalf of my trainers, when I inquired about learning opportunities for vasectomies. They were mostly related to what seemed pure professional jealousy, and an unfounded concern about training a non-urologist. This was clearly ignoring the fact that all over the world, most vasectomies are performed by well-trained family physicians and general practitioners.
Eventually, once I had completed my training, and while I was already practicing fully independently, I was able to acquire the training I had been looking for. I met Dr. Douglas Stein, a urologist from Tampa, FL, who has exclusively dedicated his life to the performance of vasectomies. He mentored and introduced me to like-minded individuals with whom I shared my interest and curiosity about this tiny, yet powerful, procedure.
After my training in 2012, a movement called World Vasectomy Day was created by Dr. Stein and Jonathan Stack (an accomplished filmmaker), to celebrate those responsible men that decide to be more active in reproduction by choosing vasectomies. Since 2015 I have been involved with them consistently as a member o the Medical Advisory Board.
In 2017 we celebrated World Vasectomy Day in Mexico, where we had the opportunity to use some of the mobile clinics that the Secretary of Health facilitated for the performance of vasectomies during the male-participation-awareness campaign we carried out that year. The idea seemed phenomenal to me: To move around with a procedure that requires minimal infrastructure, with a great public health impact. I then became almost obsessed with the idea of replicating the model of a mobile clinic, specifically for vasectomies, in the United States.
In August 2020, the design of the first and only mobile vasectomy clinic in the US was started. A 24ft (L) x 8.5ft (W) x 8ft (H) mobile medical unit was created with the intent of increasing the notoriety of vasectomies, and therefore increase the discussion about active male participation in reproductive matters.
I had been working consistently in Maternal, Child, and Reproductive health consistently for at least 12 years; but my interest in making sure that men have an unparalleled experience when getting their vasectomies grew stronger each day. That, along with the experience of delivering, over a period of 2 years, five women pregnant by the same individual; made me realize that I had more to offer in the quest for reproductive equity and equality. I decided then that creating a clinic dedicated to the exclusive performance of vasectomies, where patients could have a fast, effective, and stress-free procedure; was a better way to promote the message than setting some time aside for intermittent sessions for the procedure.
I had been doing vasectomies under the name SimpleVas, as my intent was to simplify as much as possible the patient’s experience. That’s why, when the time for the creation of a vasectomy clinic came, I decided to call it such.
Now, I provide vasectomies at a low cost (if no insurance) and highly effective, while I use my platform to remind men that the burden of contraception and reproduction should not rest unfairly more on the shoulders of women.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Leaving the practice of obstetrics was not easy, but it was necessary fr a more dedicated and consistent practice of vasectomies.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Family Medicine Specialist with additional training in Maternal, Child and Reproductive Health
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Reproduction and contraception are tasks that belong to those who participate in them. The weight of those tasks has been unevenly placed on women for long enough. It is important to educate men and change their minds about the potential benefit of more active participation in them.
Pricing:
- $699 cost of vasectomy without insurance (the average cost of a vasectomy without insurance is $1,500)
Contact Info:
- Email: admin@simplevas.net
- Website: https://www.simplevas.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorguarin
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guarinmd
Image Credits
World Vasectomy Day/SimpleVas Clinic
