If you have had your tubes tied and want another baby then you only have two options: in-vitro fertilization or tubal reversal surgery.
There are two important questions you need to ask yourself when comparing the two treatments:
- What does each treatment cost?
- How successful is each treatment?
Once you know the cost and the chance of getting a baby then you can make the best decision for yourself and your family.
In-vitro fertilization, or IVF, is a popular treatment option.
IVF has been around since the 1980’s and most general Ob/gyns are familiar with IVF. General Ob/Gyn’s don’t do IVF but they can refer you to an infertility doctor that does offer IVF treatment. Most infertility doctors only offer IVF. These doctors can easily answer most of your questions.
Unfortunately, most IVF doctor do not perform tubal reversal surgery… despite what they may list on their websites.
If you have been searching for information about tubal reversal surgery you have probably not found very much. The reason is because there are very few experienced tubal reversal doctors around because IVF has become the easier treatment to provide women suffering from infertility. Most IVF doctors have no reason to try to offer tubal reversal because IVF is an easier service to provide. Easier does not mean cheaper.
We will give you solid answers on the cost of tubal reversal. We will answer the all important question of how successful is tubal reversal surgery?
IVF: Cost and success
Unfortunately, IVF is expensive.
There are no guarantees with any infertility treatment…and there no guarantees with IVF. The biggest predictor of the success of IVF is your age at the time you have your eggs retrieved.
Women who have IVF and eggs retrieved under the age of 30 have the highest chance of IVF success.
Women who are over the age of 42, have IVF, and have their eggs retrieved have the lowest chance of IVF success.
Women over the age of 42 will have to use donor eggs from a younger woman to have any reasonable chance of IVF success.
IVF costs
You will have to pay for multiple office visits and lab tests. You will have to pay for a semen analysis for your partner. You will have to pay for X-rays and ultrasounds to examine your uterus and uterine cavity. You will also have to pay for ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval under sedation, lab fertilization, and lab incubation time.
You will have to pay the infertility specialist, anesthesia person, the embryologist and lab staff.
If any eggs fertilize you will have to pay for the team to put the fertilized eggs in your uterus and pray that they attached. If you are lucky and have left over fertilized eggs then you will also have to pay for freezing of any left over embryos.
The biggest influencer of the cost of IVF is the amount of hormonal medication you need to stimulate your ovaries to produce eggs.
IVF hormones are incredibly expensive and each woman’s body needs different dosages of medication. Some women may need very little hormone to stimulate their ovaries. Others may need huge amounts to stimulate the production of a few eggs. The more hormonal medication you need then the more expensive IVF will be. It is not uncommon that some women will need several thousand dollars worth of hormonal medication.
The average cost of a single cycle of IVF averages $14,000 but this number could be higher if you are over the age of 42. Women over the age of 42 may need more hormonal medications, may have to use donor eggs, or may need to use a gestational surrogate.
IVF success rates
The average success of a single IVF cycle is about 35%.
If you are under the age of 30 the chance of IVF success could be as high as 60%. If you are over the age of 43 most IVF doctors will not do IVF with your own eggs and will require you use donor eggs from a younger woman. If you use donor eggs you can boost your chance of success but the cost of IVF will increase $5,000 to $8,000.
You can calculate your chance of IVF success here: CDC IVF Success Estimator
If you have problems with your uterus (like a previous endometrial ablation procedure) or are just are in poor health (severe kidney, liver, or heart diseases) then you will need a gestational surrogate and that could cost as much as an additional $120,000. This number is not a typo!
Usually only very determined or very wealthy people can afford a gestational surrogate. If you have ever watched the news and saw a report of an older movie star giving birth…and you never knew she was pregnant…it is often because they hired a surrogate to carry and give birth to their baby.
Tubal reversal: Cost and success
Tubal reversal surgery, just like IVF, is an expensive treatment.
Health insurance will not pay for either tubal reversal or IVF. There are no guarantees with any infertility treatment…and there no guarantees with the success of tubal reversal. The biggest predictors of the success of tubal reversal is the experience of the doctor and the health and length of the remaining fallopian tubes.
Tubal reversal cost
The cost for tubal reversal depends on where you go. Most IVF doctors will only do the surgery in a hospital. Hospitals charge a lot for services. If you have tubal reversal in a hospital the cost could exceed $20,000.
More information: Cost of reversal with A Personal Choice
At A Personal Choice the surgery is performed with specialized techniques in an out-patient setting. The cost for tubal reversal is usually less than half the cost of a single cycle of IVF treatment.
Can my Ob/Gyn do reversal surgery?
Most women mistakenly think every Ob/Gyn can perform reversal surgery. If you think this you are SO WRONG. You are setting yourself up for failure.
More information: Can my Ob/Gyn untie my tubes?
If you want to know how successful is tubal reversal surgery and you are letting your general OB/Gyn do it then the answer to your question is closer to 0% success than it is to 100% success. Most general Ob/Gyns have never even seen a reversal surgery let alone done one. If they do them then they don’t usually do reversal that often.
Can an infertility specialist do reversal surgery?
Most women also mistakenly think an infertility specialist can do tubal reversal surgery. Again…wrong!
Now some have done a few surgeries and some will do reversal surgery with regularity. A few may even do up to 12 surgeries a year…that is one reversal surgery per month. The reason they don’t do that many is because they are forced to do the surgery in a hospital and the cost is often astronomical. Some of them have contract deals with hospitals and can offer a lower price.
Most of their patients just settle for doing IVF in the office and for their patients this is cheaper than reversal in a hospital setting.
Some doctors will only perform reversal surgery on the best candidates. These are usually the women who are less than age 35 and who have either tubal clips or tubal rings.
Some of these doctors, for reasons totally unknown to us, will only reverse one tube rather than both tubes. This is unfortunate and we have no idea why they would only reverse one tube. The chance of successful tubal reversal is much better if both tubes are reversed.
If you are going to do reversal surgery pick a doctor who does many reversals of all different types on a continual basis. You may only have one chance to get it right…so dont waste your opportunity.
Dr. Monteith is the Medical Director of A Personal Choice tubal reversal surgery. He performs approximately 600 to 800 reversal surgeries a year in his outpatient reversal center in Raleigh, NC. Dr. Monteith reverses almost every type of tubal ligation…from A to Z…. From tubal rings to Essure and Adiana tubal occlusion procedures.
How successful is reversal surgery?
If you did not have problems getting pregnant before tubal ligation then you should not have problems getting pregnant after tubal reversal… unless you are significantly older.
So if you did not have problems before your tubal and you are not older than age 43 then you should have a good chance at getting pregnant again.
The beauty of tubal reversal is that you restore your natural fertility. The key words are “YOUR NATURAL FERTILITY”. You have a chance to get pregnant every month. If reversal is successful then you can have more than one child.
On average the chance of pregnancy after tubal reversal is 60% to 70%. Your chances are much better if you are younger than 35 and the chances of pregnancy are lower after the age of 40.
- The chance of pregnancy after reversal of either tubal clips or tubal rings could be as high as 80%.
- The chance of pregnancy for cut and tied tubes is about 70% and the chance of pregnancy after reversal of burned tubes is about 60%.
- The chance of pregnancy after reversal of Essure or Adiana is 50% to 60%.
- The chance of pregnancy after vasectomy reversal is about 80% to 85%.
Can your tubal ligation be reversed?
Dr. Monteith is an expert at reversal surgery. He has been performing reversal surgery since 2008 and he has reversed every type of tubal ligation that has been described. The only type of tubal ligation that he cannot reverse is complete/total salpingectomy (total removal of both fallopian tubes).
If you want to see what your chances are then we encourage you to watch this video.
You can become pregnant again after tubal ligation reversal surgery. Don’t lose hope.
For more information visit his website: Tubal reversal A Personal Choice
How successful is tubal reversal? Better when you see a specialist
Your best chance of success is when you have reversal with an experience reversal doctor.
When you have surgery with an experience tubal reversal surgeon, like Dr Monteith, then you have a good chance of having a great outcome.
If you are younger than age 43 the your chances of pregnancy are better. If your tubal ligation was done with tubal clips or tubal rings then you have an even better chance of success with surgery.
Dont forget the most important factor is choosing an experience doctor. Even if you have burned tubes are are over the age of 43 reversal surgery can provide you a chance as long as you pick a doctor who will not give up on you.
