Is IVF Better Than Tubal Ligation Reversal?
Posted On: Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Many patients are mistakenly advised IVF is a better choice for them than tubal reversal. Unfortunately, this is not true for most women.
If you have been told that IVF is a better choice for you than tubal reversal surgery, and you want to understand why you may have been told this, then you should familiarize yourself with this article.
IVF is a good treatment for infertility, but it is not always better than tubal reversal.
Often the opposite is true and tubal reversal is the better choice for a woman who has had her tubes tied.
Tubal Reversal: Does Your Doctor Have Experience?
Many doctors will not recommend tubal reversal surgery as a treatment simply because they have had little or no experience with reversal surgery. Most primary care doctors and some ob/gyns are not even aware reversal is possible.
Some ob/gyns are aware sterilization reversal is possible but they think of it as ‘older form’ of treatment for infertility. Most ob/gyn doctors have never seen a sterilization reversal operation and they mistakenly believe IVF is the better and more effective treatment. When a patient discusses infertility with a non-ob/gyn or a primary care doctor they are often referred to a infertility specialists.
The irony is that most infertility specialists have very little experience with reversal surgery. Patients are often given incorrect information or a bad impression about tubal reversal because of the varied experiences and lack of knowledge of their local infertility doctors.
IVF Or Tubal Reversal Specialist?
Most infertility doctors specialize in IVF because this treatment is easy to do in an office and it can be used to treat most forms of infertility. Many of these doctors have never seen or participated in a tubal reversal operation during their training because health insurance does not pay for tubal reversal infertility treatment. As a result, most patients will not have tubal reversal in a hospital setting and most infertility specialists will get limited exposure to reversal surgery during their training because of this.
When infertility specialists finish their training, some may be aware tubal reversal surgery is a possibility, most have had little exposure to reversal surgery, and many find it easier to offer IVF to all their patients within their offices. They will preferentially advise patients with tubal blockage to have IVF rather than a reversal of their blockage.
IVF Or Tubal Ligation Reversal
Some infertility doctors will have experience with tubal reversal surgery and will perform these surgeries for select patients; however, these same doctors devote the majority of their time to performing in-vitro fertilization. It is often easier to treat all of their patients in the office with IVF rather than leave their office to perform a three hour tubal reversal surgery in the hospital.
Tubal Reversal Costs
When infertility doctors perform tubal reversal surgery they will often perform this surgery in a local hospital. The hospital operating rooms will charge patients for operating room time by the minute.
If an overnight stay is required then the cost for tubal reversal will increase.
Very often patients who have hospital tubal reversal surgeries with overnight stays will pay $15,000 to $30,000.
Often times prospective patients are then told how much a tubal reversal surgery will cost in the hospital setting and then will be offered a less expensive alternative IVF. A single cycle of IVF costs around $12,000.
If tubal reversal is done as an outpatient procedure then they cost of the surgery is dramatically reduced and this makes tubal reversal more affordable.
Tubal Reversal Success Rate
At Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center we exclusively specialize in tubal ligation reversal surgery. We do not perform IVF.
Our reversal surgeries are affordable, one hour, outpatient procedures done by two reversal specialists who each perform approximately 500 tubal surgeries per year. Due to our unique specialization in tubal surgery, we are able to provide this surgery to couples for $5900. Due to our unique specialization in tubal surgery, we are able to offer couples an affordable and successful alternative to IVF.
Tubal reversal surgery at Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center costs $5900 and the success of the procedure can be as high as 80%. Alternatively, a single IVF cycle will cost between $10,000-12,000 for a 35% chance at becoming pregnant.
Readers are welcome to do the math and should be able to answer if IVF is better for them than tubal ligation reversal.
June 7th, 2011 at 8:00 am
This is great information for women seeking to conceive after their tubal ligation. IVF is such an expensive procedure, not to mention a few other down falls such as multiple births, multiple injections, hormones that make your body out of sink. For women without infertility issues this is great news.
June 7th, 2011 at 8:25 am
[...] Is IVF Better Than Tubal Ligation Reversal?. [...]
June 7th, 2011 at 11:41 am
I was pushed by my fertility specialist to do IVF. In fact, she bluntly told me tubal reversals do not work and I would be waisting my time and money going that route. In fact, at my follow up after my surgery she again gave us little hope of conceiving on our own and again said we should make an appointment to speak with the IVF specialist if we were not pregnant in 6 months.
I listened to my instict and belief this surgery would work for me. I only have one ovary and one tube due to a dermoid cyst when I was just 14 years old. I had my reversal on 2/28/11 and my tube length was only 4cm. I became pregnant just the 2nd month of trying! We are 8 weeks today.
For us.. TUBAL REVERSAL was the answer to our prayers!
Mission Accomplished!
June 7th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Thank you for the great information comparing IVF and tubal ligation reversal!
June 7th, 2011 at 6:56 pm
It is obvious that most infertility specialists have very little experience with reversal surgery. Thanks to Dr. Berger and Dr. Monteith we are able to offer couples an affordable and successful alternative to IVF.
June 7th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
So many women and their doctors do not even know that tubal reversal is possible. It is good to know that Dr. Berger and Dr. Monteith have devoted their practice to helping women who would like an alternative to IVF.
June 9th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
I am really happy that the fact is out as I was told by my doctor that getting pregnant by Tubal Reversal is not possible and that I would be risking my health even more. She convinced me to start seeing an IVF specialist. The realization of this long process did not register with me until I was asked to do a FSH and that’s when it hit me that I am not over 40 and even women in their 40s have children normally with functioning tubes and without IVF and it was even more embarrassing for my husband who could not function in an hospital cubicle to produce for testing so after five tiring hours of trying, we went home and I cry myself to sleep because I knew there had to be a way for me to get my life back. I started my research and found Chapel Hill and never looked elsewhere since.
July 11th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
You hear so much about IVF being better than tubal reversal. So I was glad to see that reversing tied tubes is less expensive and more successful than IVF. I want the chance to become pregnant naturally every month and not have to take shots and hormones.