Anyone been successsful with a reversal please

Hi all,

No this is not another 'Shall we have a baby' thread. My fiance and I have already decided to go down the route of having a steralization reversal. I had the kind that cauterized my tubes. Has anyone here successfully had a baby after this kind of reversal? We are at the stage of investigating as to whether my tubes are still in good enough conditon to be re-joined, but I know that this kind of reversal IS the most permanent. Any info would be greatly appreciated as it seems to be a lonely road.

Hi, my 9 year old is a reversal baby.
When I was researching it, one thing that stood out was to make sure of your surgeon's success rate. My Dr. had an over 90% success rate if there was enough tube left to reconnect. One of my tubes is only 2 1/2cm long, and on is a little over 1cm, and that's the one I got pregnant on.
I was 38, 39 when she was born.
The major thing is what kind of tubal you had. A simple tie is really easy to reverse, if the tubes were cauterized, it's more difficult, and the procedure some doctors use, where they simply remove the end of the tube, is impossible.
You should be able to get the procedure notes from your tubal to find that out.
It's not a wonderful surgery, but if all goes well, the results are.

Thanks for the info guys. I have no idea whether the ends of the tubes were removed ( I didn't even know that they did this). The Doctor did say however, that they had been cauterized. Thanks also for the suggestion about the success rating of the surgeon. We have been referred to one but know absolutly nothing about him .............. you just tend to trust a Doctor :confused: I hope you don't mind me asking, but what are the general costs involved? We have savings but it would be good to have an idea, even the Doctor is vague on this

You are 42 years old, right?

I would go for IVF directly. You have no time to lose now. After 42 your fertility is very very low.

Has your doctor told you the percentage of chances that you'll get pregnant at that age?

Hi,

Yep 42. The doctor has just said that she would refer us. maybe I will get some percentages from the surgeon? This is beginning to sound a bit grim :( I knew that fertility falls a lot after 40, but what percentage makes it worthwhile??

HIYA Mrs hedgehog and Tim (from where the cider apples grow :) ). What stage exactly are you at?? I haven't even been told the cost as yet, it's SO good to know that you are around and going through the same thing. I have had very negative response from people i have mentioned it to, mainly 'Are you mental????' that's why i welcome anyone who has anything to add .......... including support!! Ah just seen your reply Sally! thanks SO much, it made me smile and I have just read it out on the phone to my fiance .... it's JUST what we needed to hear right now :)

Hi
The cost for the reversal was roughly the cost of one IVF attempt.
It's important to find out what kind of tubal you had originally, before you waste lots of money on a bunch of other testing.
The other thing my doctor did, before she did anything with me, was do a sperm sample on my ex. Too many doctors assume the guy is fertile, when it would be a huge waste of money if he wound up with a low sperm count, and IVF was your only option anyway.
I chose the reversal, as one attempt of IVF isn't usually successful, and a good outcome of the surgery would mean that I could try for a couple of years naturally. I only had enough money for one or the other, and decided if the tubal reversal didn't work, another baby just wasn't in the cards.
At the time, 10+ years ago, it was roughly $12,500.
It was a 4 hour microsurgery, hipbone to hipbone, although I understand that some are doing it laparoscopically now.
Don't waste time, at 42, you may not have a lot of it.
Although my father, and my ex were both born naturally to 47 year old mothers.

The success rates for IVF, which is getting a fertilized egg into your uterus, thus no need of tubes, between 40 and 42 years old range from 2 to 8% only. After 42 years old, 2% is the highest figures you'll get. These are statistics from the best centers you find in the world, of course for some magical reason, some private doctors will give you better numbers - not worth trusting those.

2% means the rate of pregnancy, but after 42 the rates of miscarriage also increase to 50% of all pregnancies, sometimes even 60%.

Every month you wait, you lose time, that's what I want to say to you. I have gone through all that, and read a lot (I'm also a MD, but a pediatrician and pediatric neurologist, so I had to study a lot of infertility, too, because knowledge is power).

Many of the successful pregnancies after 42 are consequent to egg donation, because the only reason why we can't get pregnant so easily is because the quality of the egg decreases, and the cytoplasma, the "food" of the embryo is old. It's not always due to chromossome problems as we used to hear, it's just that the cytoplasma shrinks and is not so efficient anymore.

As much as I want to encourage you, I would hate to see you losing time with procedures that will give you much less chances of succeeding. Go for the real thing, I'm absolutely sure your doctor will tell you the same thing, if he's aware of the statistics.

Many insurance companies now cover fertility expenses. Check with yours to see what you can get covered. I know I have great fertility coverage, but I'm not interested ;).

Thanks Maria, that has certainly given me a lot to think about and a lot to discuss with the surgeon. We are also thinking of IVF and i will be asking a LOT of questions before we go ahead. Really I do want to know what we are getting into including the 'bad' news ............

That's the secret, Hairotica. Knowledge always gives you a good start. I have read books written for couples living infertility and it's amazing how many of them use old statistics and don't even include the newest techniques.

One thing you have to know is that there are two women out of 100 that get there, and I have met some of them. Because there are more and more couples living infertility. It's amazing the number of patients every year.

Something else is choosing a doctor that will be honest with you; it's a lot of money involved, a cycle of IVF without any insurance in Europe costs 2000 dollars (up to 3000 depending on the methods). It's an excellent field to make money.

Every month you ovulate and produce one ovocyte. What the IVF does is to stimulate your ovaries to a maximum, to produce many eggs at once. That's a procedure that has to be followed closely by a doctor and with ultrassound as well as hormonal measures, to avoid hyperstimulation. They will harvest the ovocytes by ultrassound directed punction, from the vagina. You may need anesthesy, I advice you to get it, because I did once without and had terrible cramps after, but you can do all without it. They will then put the ovocytes in contact with the spermatozoids after selection, and incubate. They will freeze whatever ovocytes they don't use, and transfer the best ones into your uterus. Some places have guidelines like not transferring more than say 4 fertilized eggs. That is totally dependent on the service you are being treated at.

The stimulation period is hard, it's really hard, but it's still the best way to get pregnant at that age.

And if you think about it, if with all that, with many already fertilized eggs being directly transfered into a woman's uterus, still the percentage is that low, imagine waiting on Mother Nature to find a good ovocyte, only one per month, and getting it fertilized - when we know that even in very fertile couples, in their twenties, there's a 30% chance of getting pregnant in each intercourse in the best of the scenarios and a best timing. That's why in young fertile couples, many doctors will wait one year of common sexual active life before thinking of infertility.

I know I'm giving you lots of things to think, but you have to be prepared to ask many questions, as you said.

Hope this doesn't come off as terribly rude, but can't Tim just be a father to the ones you already have???? Five children are already quite a few! You seem intelligent...how do you feel about the overpopulation of the world, the subsequent overuse of the world's resources, and your personal role in it?

That's ok Kells you can have mine. I realized one day, I'd replaced me, my first husband, his wife, (they can't have kids) and my second husband, by having the four I had.
David isn't going to have one with me, so he's up for grabs for being replaced on the planet, so don't feel guilty. If you have one, it'll just replace his spot, no problemo!!