NFL Star to Father 11th and 12th Children — After Vasectomy
Pro football player Antonio Cromartie, already a father of 10, was surprised to learn recently that his wife, Terricka Cromartie, is now pregnant with kids Nos. 11 and 12 — shocked, actually, since the New York Jets cornerback has had a vasectomy.
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“I didn’t even tell Antonio right away because I didn’t think it was possible,” Terricka, who learned she was pregnant with twins in October, told Us Weekly Monday. “I was going back and forth in my head how it could even happen. In my head we were good to go, we were having free sex! I just really thought that his procedure was the best protection you could have at this point.”
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Antonio and Terricka were married in November 2008 and are already parents to daughter Jurzie, 5, and son Jagger, 3. The dad also has eight children from previous relationships — and the family has a book and a reality show about blended families in the works.
Terricka Cromartie (Photo: Instagram)
Antonio was apparently just as stunned by the news. “Originally, he was like, ‘Oh, s***! Are you serious? How did this happen?’” Terricka said. “It was shocking news for the both of us.”
But according to Harry Fisch, MD, a urologist and microsurgeon who specializes in vasectomies and vasectomy reversals at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City (but who did not perform Antonio’s vasectomy), the procedure is not foolproof.
“The most common cause for failure is that a person doesn’t get a semen analysis to make sure the vasectomy worked,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. “I always tell patients, ‘You are not sterile after a vasectomy; you are sterile after you have no sperm.” And only a post-surgery semen analysis, performed after the man has had a chance to ejaculate at least 20 times, will show whether or not he’s good to go, he explains. To understand why this is necessary, he adds, picture a hose after the water is turned off, when there is still water in the hose.
Antonio Cromartie with a portion of his brood. (Photo: Instagram)
“So, the question to ask Cromartie is not ‘When was your vasectomy?’ but ‘Did you have a semen analysis?’” Fisch says, noting that having 20 ejaculations could take anywhere from six weeks to three months, if not longer, depending on the individual.
The purpose of a vasectomy is to block the vas deferens, which is the small tube that carries sperm from the testicles. Fisch’s approach is to tie both ends, cauterize them, and perform a “fascial interposition,” in which he buries one end in its own skin. “Not everyone does this,” he says. And one reason for the rare (0.1 percent) but possible late, rather than early, failure of the procedure could be that a surgeon merely cuts the vas deferens without shoring up the separation in any way. “If you just cut it, it would reconnect,” he says.
But Antonio seems to be taking it all in stride. “It took me a while to process it,” Terricka said, “but Antonio stood firm and was saying, ‘It’s God’s will.’ And he’s been excited the whole time.”
Top: The Cromarties (Photo: Michael Stewart/Getty Images)
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