Little Known March Madness Snippet: Vasectomies Up During NCAA Tourney

A West Des Moines urology clinic’s March Madness-themed advertising campaign aims to nudge area men into uncrossing their legs and talking about a subject that makes them squirm:

Undergoing a vasectomy.

In other words, “Your excuse to stay on the couch and watch the games,” the announcer cajoles in an ad for The Iowa Clinic that will start running on local television stations and other media this week.

Clinic urologists perform more vasectomies in March than at other times of the year, in large part due to the March Madness campaign, which is back for the fourth year, said Jessica Grant, the clinic’s marketing manager.

“It’s intuitive,” urologist Dr. Brian Gallagher said of the timing of the campaign. “It’s a good time of year with regard to people not having a lot of responsibilities."

This weekend will be especially busy at the clinic, where Gallagher is one of eight urologists. The Men’s NCAA March Madness Tournament will be under way in earnest.

”There are two full weekdays and two weekend days for basketball,” he said. “It may trigger that little voice in the back of a couple’s head – ‘hey, it’s about time to do this. We’ve been talking about it.’ “

The ad campaign “takes some of that edge off, makes it more comfortable,” Gallagher said. “There’s a lot of concern and worry on a man’s part about having the procedure done. Most guys aren’t real comfortable talking about having their genitalia examined and procedures done.”

Gallagher said he and his colleagues are normally busy on Fridays as central Iowa men schedule the procedures before a weekend so they’ll have time to recover.

A vasectomy is a relatively simple procedure, “but we recommend 48 hours of a whole lot of nothing, ice and scrotal support,” Gallagher said. “It’s not bad to sit around and watch college basketball.”

The clinic introduced the March Madness vasectomy campaign in 2010 and it quickly went viral. Scheduled appointments increased to 102 that month and peaked in 2011 with 129 procedures in March 2011. Clinic doctors expect to complete a similar number of procedures this month.

“We did not invent it,” Grant, the marketing manager, said of the campaign. “A few other urology clinics had done something similar around March Madness. Some of the doctors brought it to us and thought it was a good idea, so we decided to give it a try.”

Gallagher said urologists are in general a light-hearted, collegial group, so it’s OK to have a little fun with an advertising campaign and push the needle in a direction oncologists, for example, wouldn’t.

“We always have to be careful with messaging,” Grant concurred, “but with the vasectomy campaign, we are able to be a little more creative. Vasectomy is not something men like to talk about or think about, but this is a way to get their attention in a fun way.”