// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
I had a vasectomy in my 20s after the trauma of my sons' births
Alex West says he remembers the months after the births of his two sons as "grey"
Alex West was left harrowed by the difficult labour his wife endured for their first child. When it came to their second, he hoped for a much smoother arrival.
The birth did go better for his wife - but not for him.
"I had a panic attack and broke down. I hadn't been able to - I didn't have the ability to - process that," Alex says.
Unresolved trauma from his wife's first labour and his subsequent postnatal depression meant Alex didn't want to continue with the couple's plan to have four children.
He remembers the months after the births of his two sons as "grey" - life was devoid of colour and filled with people telling him that being a father must be a fantastic experience.
"I didn't feel this love and connection that everybody says I should have," Alex says.
Not wanting to repeat the experience, he and his wife agreed to stop at two kids. Given he was the driving force behind the decision, he felt it was "wrong to put the onus on my wife" to take a contraceptive.
So like thousands more men in England have done in recent years, Alex chose to have a vasectomy.
The procedure involves the cutting and then clamping or sealing of the vas deferens, a tube on each testicle that carries sperm to the urethra. It's colloquially known as the snip.