Infertility Treatments after Tubal Ligation

Many women who choose to undergo tubal ligation will later decide that they in fact want to have more children. For these women there are two kinds of infertility treatment that medical professionals can use to help them achieve their aims. The doctor or surgeon will choose either to treat the woman’s infertility using IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) or they will recommend that the original tubal ligation procedure be reversed. Whichever treatment the surgeon or doctor chooses is the one that should provide patient satisfaction the most, meaning that the woman has a greater chance of conceiving a child.

Often most women who have undergone tubal ligation will opt to have the procedure reversed rather than undergo IVF treatment as tubal reversals cost less. Plus, with tubal ligation reversal, a woman’s chances of conceiving a child naturally are much higher which you can see by reviewing the results of a 2007 study of tubal ligation reversal patients. For IVF, the success rate is 10% – 30% for each cycle.

With IVF treatment each course will cost around $10,000 – $12,000 to be undertaken, on average. On the other hand, a reversal of tubal ligation costs about $5,900 when done by Dr. Gary Berger, the world’s leading tubal reversal surgeon. However, on average, it takes at least three courses of the infertility treatment IVF for a successful pregnancy so if a woman is considering using IVF, then she needs to consider that additional cost.

However, before the surgeon is able to carry out the procedure to reverse the tubal ligation, he must look at whether it will be the best course of infertility treatment for that patient. There are several things which the surgeon will do in order to determine if patient satisfaction following the procedure will be achieved. The first thing he should do is look at the woman’s post operative report from the original procedure. Should they not be able to obtain a copy of this, then the other option is to carry out a diagnostic laparoscopy on the woman instead.

When it comes to the woman’s tubal ligation post operative report, the surgeon should be able to learn the actual form of tubal ligation carried out. Plus he can determine how much viable fallopian tubes remains and so reasonably determine how much will be available following tubal reversal. For those women where there is a larger amount of her fallopian tubes remaining following the reversal procedure, then there is a greater chance of having a child naturally once more.

If however the surgeon needs to carry out the diagnostic laparoscopy procedure, then a small incision will made in the abdomen to allow them to insert a small camera. This camera is directed towards the fallopian tubes for him to see the form of tubal ligation surgery carried out originally and the damage done to the tubes as well. Also it allows them to determine if reversing this procedure will be successful or not. Rarely is Dr. Berger unable to proceed with the tubal reversal in one form or another. Should he determine that reversing the tubal ligation will prove successful, he will most likely proceed to that procedure right away while the woman is still under.

Before the tubal reversal operation is done, the surgeon needs to have carried out some preoperative tests. This is a number of different blood tests they do including one to test for HIV-1 antibodies, one to test for Hepatitis C antibodies and another to test for Hepatitis B antigens. A complete blood test needs to be done along with the ones mentioned above.

If, when carrying out the tests, some anomalies are noticed, then the surgeon may choose to delay the surgery. The whole aim of these tests, no matter how many the surgeon carries out, is to do his best to ensure that patient satisfaction will follow the tubal ligation reversal procedure being carried out. Remember they are trying to help these woman conceive another child as naturally as they possibly can with this infertility treatment.

Choosing tubal reversal as your infertility treatment is only the first step. Deciding which tubal reversal doctor to use is the next. Check out the Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center website, http://www.tubal-reversal.net/ to do your own research into tubal ligation reversal as well as to learn more about Dr. Gary Berger and Dr. Charles Monteith. Learn how no one can compare to their experience and training. Read the many, many patient satisfaction reports and know you will be in good hands with the CHTRC staff.

Sandra Wilson