(382) Online Trends for Vasectomy Inquiries following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court Decision

Abstract

Abstract Introduction On June 24th, 2022, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, the constitutional right to abortion access in the U.S. There have been reports of increased interest in vasectomies at individual centers following this Supreme Court ruling, though it is unclear what changes have occurred on the national level. Objective We sought to use Google Trends to evaluate online interest in vasectomies in the U.S. in relation to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Methods We used Google Trends to evaluate the popularity scores (generated as a relative value amongst search terms from 0-100) of the search term “vasectomy” from January 2022 to January 2023. We calculated average rate of change (ROC) of scores for the time periods immediately surrounding the Dobbs V. Jackson court decision on June 24th, 2022 and the decision’s early leak to press on May 2nd, 2022 to determine if there was change in interest in immediate time surrounding these events. We then compared the baseline popularity scores in the 4 months before and after the decision. Additionally, we assessed the top 10 states searching for “vasectomy” and correlated with abortion access following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Results The national average rate of change of searches for “vasectomy” was significantly higher immediately after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision (0.283 vs. -0.210, p=0.003) (Figure 1). There was not a statistically significantly difference in searches of “vasectomy” after the press leak of the decision (0.001 vs. -0.102, p=0.745) (Figure 1). There was not a statistically significant long-term change in search trends pre- and post- Dobbs v. Jackson decision (p=0.506). Among the 10 states with the highest searches for “vasectomy” after the decision, 7 had abortion bans that went into effect following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision (Table 1). Conclusions There were significantly increased Google searches for “vasectomy” following the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision to repeal the constitutional right to abortion and most of the states with the highest interest had abortion bans that went into effect following the decision. Urologists should be aware that abortion policies can influence the reproductive interests of their male patients. Disclosure No.