Tubal Reversal Blog ‘PTLS forum’

Katherine is planning to be a future reversal patient of Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center in the fall of 2008. She discovered us while searching the Internet.

Here Katharine tells her story in her own words…

My ligation was two years ago. A month later, while getting ready for a wedding, I destroyed my bathroom upstairs in my home!

My boyfriend was in total shock! He flew up the stairs to see what in the world was going on up there. I had a “fit of rage”. It was awful. It is still very embarrassing to talk about. I do not have a history of mental illness or mood disorders. This ‘fit’ was extremely terrifying for me and for my boyfriend. After calming myself enough to grab the phone, I called my gynecologist. It was a Saturday and the Doctor on call suggested I seek psychiatric help.

Still shaking, and holding the phone in my lap…I thought for a moment…”Maybe I am crazy.”
Needless to say I never made it to the wedding, as I was afraid that I might have another “episode”. A few months later…my boyfriend moved out because he never knew what kind of woman he would come home to. The sad part is I’d wake up and wonder what kind of woman I would be that day. My instinct told me the tubal ligation was the cause of my emotional instability. I just knew it. It was intuition.

I made an appointment with the Doctor who performed the ligation (Filshie clips). When my name was called, I was ushered into the Nurse’s office instead of my Doctor’s office. The nurse explained the Doctor heard I was there to talk about a reversal and wanted to relay to me he “does not do reversals and is not aware of any post ligation symptoms and that I should seek professional psychiatric help.” I left crying.

I then called a psychiatrist who put me on Depakote, Lamectil and Klonopin. I informed her I have Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome (PTLS) symptoms PTLS, but I think she feels I’m bi-polar. The medication does help with the violent mood swings and depression.

The main symptoms are:

daily headaches
2-week PMS
7-8 day HEAVY periods (pass clots the size of walnuts)
anxiety, panic attacks, depression
pitting edema in ankles
fits of rage
uncontrollable crying spells
during ovulation..I have to sit on a pillow while driving and can’t sit flat on my chair at work. Pain with walking
sharp pains in my right side
pain during and after sex (especially after…I curl up in ball and suffer)

I have a small 10-acre farm with horses, dogs, and cats and soon…pigs! I don’t have time to be a pain ridden Tasmanian devil. I love my job, my family, my farm and it is so hard to enjoy it all when PTLS rules my life. I feel all of this is about to change now that I have found Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center!

Most importantly…My boyfriend and I have started dating again after a year apart. I showed him all of the emails, websites, etc that explain why I am the way I am…

A complete discussion of Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome and the stories of other PTLS patients who have undergone tubal reversal can be seen in our blog series on PTLS. The first of fourteen articles is Pain After Tubal Ligation: A Symptom of Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome? .

Readers can also view other patient submitted stories about their menstrual symptoms, reasons for reversing tubal ligation, and outcomes after reversal reversal surgery. Each patient’s story is listed below:

Meet Momzilla
Meet Andrea
Meet Rebecca
Meet Praybelieving

We invite readers to join our Tubal Reversal Message board and discuss and share personal experiences with tubal ligation. We also have a dedicated PTLS forum for readers to share experiences of worsening symptoms after tubal ligation procedures.

Some women will develop problems after a tubal ligation procedure. Many will attribute these symptoms to Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome (PTLS) and will consider sterilization reversal. Some of these women will not have PTLS but, instead will have other underlying  medical conditions.

We started this series of articles for women suffering from adverse symptoms developed after a tubal ligation. We discussed the symptoms of Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome (PTLS), current medical studies about PTLS, and common medical conditions that can closely mimic PTLS. Like a long bus ride, we have expected most passengers to have exited this bus trip at each of their respective and appropriate stops after a thorough evaluation of the possible causes of their symptoms. If passengers are still riding, then the only stop left is PTLS.

In the past, the existence of PTLS has been widely debated but not agreed upon in various medical studies. The largest study to date, the CREST study, found no significant difference in the percentage of women with menstrual problems after a tubal ligation with a “control” group of women who did not have a tubal ligation. The authors of the CREST study concluded that adverse symptoms do not ocurr as a  result of tubal ligation. This study, however, was not designed to study the multitude of symptoms that women report after surgical sterilization.

The end of the journey

Our experience at Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center suggests PTLS does exist for a select group of women for whom no contributing medical, psychological, or other causes have been identified. Among this group of women, the vast majority have reported dramatic improvement in their symptoms after a reversal of their tubal ligation.

We will report the stories of several of our patients (both before and after tubal ligation reversal) who have had worsening physical and psychological conditions after sterilization and who have come to us seeking tubal ligation reversal. They will share with us their symptoms and how they have fared after tubal ligation reversal (had their tubes untied).

This is the sixth article in our fourteen part series on PTLS and associated medical conditions. Our next several articles will present patients who have suffered from worsening menstrual, physical, and emotional symptoms after surgical sterilization procedures (women who had their tubes tied).

Readers can also view patient submitted stories about their menstrual symptoms, reasons for reversing tubal ligation, and outcomes after reversal reversal surgery. Each patient’s story is listed below:

Meet Momzilla
Meet Andrea
Meet Rebecca
Meet Praybelieving
Meet Katherine

Visitors may join the PTLS Forum on the Tubal Reversal Message Board to share their experiences of symptoms after tubal ligation procedures and what happened to them after a tubal reversal.