3 Questions to Ask Before Getting a Tubal Reversal
Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008
by Sandra Wilson
Maybe like so many women each year you previously had a tubal ligation and have changed your mind. You now want a new little member to add to the family. The choices you have are having a tubal reversal or getting in vitro fertilization treatments. But before you decide, you will have several questions. Let's start with these three basic questions many women in your situation ask first.
Quite possibly your doctor does know about tubal reversals but has inadequate or antiquated information regarding them. It could be though, that if he was educated in the last couple of decades, he simply never had the training in the surgery.
You can learn on the web that even doctors trained as reproductive endocrinologists most likely will not see this type of surgery during training. If they do not search for the information, they could end up thinking it's simply not done. If you aren't trained in it, it doesn't exist, right?
As for why he may be pushing IVF, you simply need to take a look at the cost of each cycle and realize how many cycles are needed on average. We do that in the next question.
How Does a Tubal Reversal Surgery Compare to IVF?
Quite simply, IVF is expensive. These treatments can cost $10,000 - $12,000 per cycle on average. You should expect to do three cycles before you get the hoped-for outcome. That's another average. This is because each cycle, which last from three to eight weeks, only has a 10 to 30% success rate. The way I figure it is most likely you will end up spending at least $36,000 unless you are very lucky. Understand that some doctors will charge a whole lot more than that but that happens with tubal reversals as well. Don't forget to take into account the time required for each cycle and what kind of havoc it does to your body. Research the potential hazards as well. Your doctor might forget to tell you those.
Tubal reversals average $8,000 to $9,000 per treatment as well. The good news is that one does the trick. I should say it usually does but this relies on you choosing the correct surgeon. Please choose one who is very experienced. Has your doctor even done three tubal reversal sugeries in the last year? The last two years? That is not unusual if the answer is no.
Now the success rate of tubal reversal is pretty good as well. Using the statistics from one website/center that publishes their data we find that the success rate averages 69%. This varies up to a high of 82% depending upon your tube length, type of tubal ligation and age. This brings us to our last question for this article.
Does It Matter How Old I Am?
I hate to say it but, yes, age matters. Over 35 and your body is already beginning to change. If you are over 40, you have a much lower chance of getting pregnant even if your tubes were not "tied".
So, using the statistics mentioned earlier, if you are under 30 when getting your tubal reversal, you will have an 82% success rate. But, if you are over 40, it goes down to 41%. This still looks better than IVF the way I figure out the stats.
I hope these beginning three questions will get you started in making your decision. There are other questions and they will come in later articles. Perhaps you can find a tubal reversal message board to find the answers to some of your questions without having to wait.
You can check out those pregnancy success rate statistics from Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center yourself at this site: http://www.tubal-reversal.net/ They have the leading tubal reversal doctor in the U.S., maybe the world, and he does nothing but tubal reversals. Browse their message board and get answers to your specific questions. The ladies there are a great support group, too.
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