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 A Personal Choice 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 A Personal Choice 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.
