Looking into Pregnancy after Tubal Reversal

Pregnancy after tubal reversal questions and concerns come up after a woman has had her reversal surgery although some do seek out advice before.  Although there is more than one reason for undergoing tubal reversal surgery, most women do so in order to be able to have another child.  This article starts with the assumption that is the reason you had or will have your surgery.

Having a child is the whole reason you are considering undergoing tubal reversal surgery or have already done so. Now you are looking to find out what factors affects pregnancy after tubal reversal. Below we will cover some different things which can affect how soon and what your probability of a successful pregnancy is given certain factors.

Age Affects Pregnancy After Tubal Reversal

As a woman grows older the chances of her conceiving become greatly reduced even if she hasn’t had tubal ligation. However for those women that have had tubal ligation and then choose to have the operation reversed, they may find it a bit more difficult to conceive no matter their age. However, the chances of a woman conceiving after tubal reversal are greatly increased by being younger rather than older just as it would if you had never had either surgery.

For women who are under the age of 30 the chances of them getting pregnant after tubal reversal is around 77%.  But the older the woman is the chances of them conceiving are greatly reduced. For those women aged between 35 and 39 the chances of them getting pregnant drops to 62% and for women over the age of 40 their success rate is only 34%.

What Type of Tubal Ligation Did You Have – This Affects Pregnancy after Tubal Reversal

Now the next thing that affects your getting pregnant after tubal reversal is what happened in your original tubal ligation surgery. Did that surgeon take too much of the fallopian tubes when he did his cutting and what condition were the tubes left in? Did the type of sterilization procedure he conducted damage a lot of your fallopian tubes?  Will the type of procedure you had require a different type of tubal reversal surgery?

The longer the tubes are and the better condition they are in when you undergo your reversal surgery the better your chances of getting pregnant. Even at that, some women just take more time. One woman can get pregnant almost seemingly immediately while another can take five years plus.

So it’s good to know how long your tubes are and what shape they are in.  Remember your tubal reversal doctor will need to also remove the bad parts of your fallopian tubes.

Time Affects Conceiving after Tubal Reversal

Again time has a part to play in this next factor and that has to do with how much time has passed since the original tubal ligation procedure. A woman who is having a tubal reversal done only five years since her original surgery to have her tubes tied will be better off than someone who has waited fifteen years or better.

The longer it has been, the longer the time for some damage to occur to the tubes which means the greater the chances of things not being successful. However, we are not saying you can’t conceive after a tubal ligation reversal, only that you shouldn’t waste time if that is what you want and to be aware that it is a factor.

This time factor also goes back to the fact that the longer you wait, the older you will be.  Thus, your chances of conceiving and carrying to term will be lower.

Will Another Alternative Be Better for Getting Pregnant Instead of Tubal Reversal?

One thing your fertility specialist may ask you to consider is IVF, in vitro fertilization. Is that going to be better for you than a tubal reversal? Several studies have shown that woman undergoing the surgery are more successful in conception than women who choose IVF.

One such study from the Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center, where they keep excellent track of their patients, it was discovered that the women who had the tubal reversal done, instead of the IVF treatments, conceived more easily.

In addition, the number of actual babies born after they became pregnant, was higher for the tubal reversal surgery than for those who underwent IVF. This information is borne out with statistics from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study conducted every couple years with data collected from various fertility clinics that do IVF.

Even better for you is that the reversal surgery is done generally on an outpatient basis with only about an hour in surgery thus lowering the cost of this treatment.  This compares to the IVF treatments which can take many tries with a cost for each effort.  Most women do not get pregnant with their first cycle of IVF.

Think about what we have written about in this article. Any of these things, maybe even all of them, can and will have an affect on the outcome of such a surgery. Conception will take time but the more the factors are to your benefit, perhaps the less time it will take for pregnancy after tubal reversal surgery and the sooner you will hold that darling infant in your arms.