What are my Treatment Options after a Tubal Ligation?
In some cases, patients may elect to do a Tubal Ligation Reversal surgery. This is a surgical procedure that repairs the fallopian tubes to (hopefully) get them back to their normal function. However, there are lots of factors to consider regarding this option.
The type of procedure your doctor performed in the tubal ligation surgery, will influence the condition of your tubes and can affect your chances of conceiving naturally. Some types of ligation procedures are easier to reverse than others, often the tubes are damaged too much to repair successfully, making the chances of getting pregnant naturally smaller.
Age should be considered when making your decision. For anyone, age plays a significant factor in fertility, particularly for females. Even if you were fertile and got pregnant easily at age 28, your odds of conceiving naturally get smaller and smaller as time goes on. After the age of 35, fertility declines even more rapidly. And although your tubes are tied, your eggs are still aging and natural conception becomes more unlikely. Male Factor Infertility also plays into the chances of getting pregnant naturally. 33% of infertility cases can be attributed to some kind of male factor infertility like low motility or count. And, like women, men’s fertility also declines with age. Because of this, in all our fertility treatments, we also do fertility testing on male partners to ensure you are getting the best chance at success.
Cost, as with all fertility treatments, is an important determinant in selecting your path. With lower chances of conception with just a reversal, there is the chance that you would end up paying for other fertility treatments after the reversal surgery to achieve your goals of pregnancy.
At Reproductive Health Center, we want you to have the best possible chance at having a baby, all while keeping cost in mind. Because of this and all the reasons above, we advise our patients who have had a tubal ligation to consider pursuing IVF, or In Vitro Fertilization, to grow their family. IVF is less expensive and has a higher pregnancy rate than tubal ligation reversal.
With IVF, we are able to perform all the procedures we normally do in IVF without having to reverse a tubal ligation. This means we can retrieve eggs from the ovaries, fertilize and culture the egg, and transfer the embryo into your uterus. IVF would also allow us to perform ICSI–a procedure that aids the sperm in fertilizing the egg–should male factor infertility be present. And for our patients over 35, with IVF we can test the chromosome complement of the embryos before transfer to make sure they are normal (without too many or too few chromosomes) and we have the added benefit of knowing the gender of the embryo before transfer as well.
Make an Appointment Today
It may feel overwhelming at first, but trust that Reproductive Health Center is here to support you in every step of the way. Your tubal ligation doesn’t have to prevent you from growing your family.
We encourage you to learn more about your options for family-building after a tubal ligation. Make an appointment to see what’s right for you. Contact us at (520) 733-0083 or schedule your new patient visit at our Tucson clinic here.
