We are commonly asked is there an age limit for tubal reversal surgery at A Personal Choice?
Many women are concerned we will not accept them as candidates for surgery if they are too old.
We specialize exclusively in tubal ligation and vasectomy reversal. We know what we are doing.
We have extensive experience with restoring the natural ability of women to become pregnant after they have had ‘permanent procedures’ to prevent pregnancy.
In our experience, ‘permanent’ is not forever.
Pregnancy is always possible if you are having regular periods. If you are having periods then you are ovulating. If you are ovulating then you can get pregnant.
Many infertility doctors set age limits. Many tubal reversal doctors have age limits between the ages of 38 and 43.
We do not have an age limit for tubal reversal surgery at A Personal Choice. We only require patients have regular periods. Our oldest patient to become pregnant and have a baby was age 48.
Although we do not have an age limit, there are some important concepts women considering reversal should be aware of before scheduling either tubal reversal surgery or in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
What we are sharing below is true for both tubal reversal surgery and in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
Advanced Maternal Age: Get this out of your head!
Almost every pregnant woman is familiar with the concept of Advanced Maternal Age…or AMA. Most Ob/Gyn’s classify women after the age of 35 as Advanced Maternal Age.
Please get this age limit out of your head!
AMA has nothing to do with the ability to become pregnant.
Women who are AMA DO NOT HAVE PROBLEMS GETTING PREGNANT!
Women who are AMA have more medical conditions that can complicate pregnancy.
Being AMA does not mean you will have problems getting pregnant!
Women who are AMA are more at risk for complications like miscarriage, congenital disorders (birth defects), gestational diabetes, and high blood pressure.
For more information read the Cleveland Clinic’s review of AMA: Pregnancy at Age 35 or Older
The Cleveland Clinic review makes a vague swipe at the fact it could be more difficult to get pregnant after age 35 but this is not entirely accurate. There are many women who become pregnant between the ages of 35 and 40. Even the Cleveland Clinic admits “getting pregnant after 35 is not impossible (it’s very possible).”
Okay…so lets make sure we are all on the same page: being AMA does not mean you can’t get pregnant but it does mean you may have more medical conditions that will require closer medical supervision while you are pregnant.
One last time…
- AMA does not mean you cannot get pregnant.
- AMA does not mean you will have a harder time getting pregnant.
So let’s get pregnant first….and then you can worry about all the things being AMA could mean for your future pregnancy.
Does age make it harder to become pregnant?
Of course it does….we all know this to be true. You do not have to be a doctor to answer this question.
How many pregnant 65 year-old women do you personally know?
Now we know someone reading this is going to say they saw a news report of a 50+ woman having a kid. What those reports do not always share with you is that person got pregnant with IVF and donor eggs. Many of these women are also outside of the United States where IVF guidelines are not as stringent and it is also more affordable to have IVF and purchase donor eggs.
Have you known more women in their 20’s and 30′ to be pregnant…or have you known more women in their 40’s to get pregnant? Based on your experience you can answer if being older makes it harder to become pregnant.
It is a biological fact that as women get older… it is harder to become pregnant. We were designed this way.
Pregnancy is like running a slow 9 month marathon. A healthy 25 year-old can more easily do this…..a 55 year-old with high blood pressure and diabetes is going to have a much harder time. As biological organisms, we have evolved to be more fertile while we are younger and less fertile as we get older.
When women go through menopause their ovaries shut down and they stop releasing eggs. If God wanted us to have children in our retirement age then he would not have created menopause.
When is menopause?
Now every women thinks they are going through menopause years before it actually happens. Most of these women who think they are having early menopause are not… they are usually developing ovulation disorders which are easily treatable.
The average age of menopause is 51 years of age…some women may go through menopause as early as 45 and some women as late as 55. Most women go through menopause around the age of 51 to 52 and it is a one year transition process for most women.
We hate to tell you this ladies…but men’s fertility, in general, does not decrease with age. Some men will have a decrease in sperm production as they get older but most men can get women pregnant almost at any age after puberty.
Men do not have to carry the pregnancy and there are no health concerns for the man when he fathers a pregnancy in a woman.
Is there an age limit for IVF?
Believe it or not… there is an age limit for IVF (in-vitro fertilization).
Most IVF doctors will not do IVF using the patient’s eggs if that woman is over the age of 42 or 43.
Some IVF doctors may allow women with good AMH or inhibin levels to do IVF at older ages but most have a hard core age cut off at age 43.
Also please be aware AMH or inhibin blood test only predict IVF success. These lab tests do not predict natural pregnancy with tubal reversal surgery.
More information: AMH And Natural Fertility: Terrible Test For Predicting Fertility!
IVF success decreases after age 43. Most people pick IVF doctors based on their success rates.
Most IVF doctors usually do not offer IVF to older patients unless they use donor eggs. The reason is because older women having IVF with their own eggs will decrease the doctor’s reported.
Chance of IVF success based on age of patient
The graph below shows IVF success based on the age of the patient. This graph is for IVF patients. This graph is not for women trying to become naturally pregnant… but we all know your natural ability to become pregnant decreases with age as well.
Natural fertility outcomes likely have similar declines….but keep this in mind: with natural fertility you have a chance to become pregnant each month! Over time those chances can add up.
This graph below uses 2021 IVF data collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
IVF Success And Age
For more information visit figure #3: CDC: 2021 National ART Summary
- The purple line in the graph above shows women who used donor eggs (eggs from a woman usually younger than 30).
- The orange line in the graph above shows women who did IVF using their own eggs.
You can easily see from the orange line…as women get older..the chance of IVF success decreases. Age plays a big role in the chances of getting pregnant. At the age of 42 the chance of having a baby with IVF is about 20% and at age 45 the chance of having a baby with IVF is about 12%.
A cycle of IVF averages $12,000 to $14,000. If you use donor eggs you will have to pay up to an additional $5,000+ for the use of donor eggs.
If using your own eggs, you will need to plan on doing at least three IVF cycles to have a good chance at success.
Chance of natural pregnancy based on age of patient
The reality is there is no great data on the chance of natural pregnancy based on a woman’s age. Why?
Most women getting pregnant are in their 20’s and 30’s. It would be hard to do a research project where you asked a group of 45+ old women to try and naturally get pregnant and see what happens. You would not have a lot of women volunteering to join that study.
Most women would be done with childbearing and have had tubal ligation or their partners have had vasectomy. So it is very hard to get reliable data on natural pregnancy in women in this age group.
Is there an age limit for tubal reversal surgery?
Some doctors enforce an age limit on patients for tubal reversal as young as 38 to as old as 42.
At A Personal Choice, we do not have an age limit. We only require you be having regular periods every month. Why is this our requirement?
If you are having a regular period….then this means you are ovulating (releasing eggs). If you are releasing eggs then you can become pregnant. This is why we don’t have an age limit for our tubal reversal patients.
It is harder to become pregnant with increasing age and the chance of miscarriage does increase….but at least you have a chance after reversal.
Without having reversal your chance of pregnancy is close to 0%….with reversal the chance of natural pregnancy is definitely higher than 0%.
Will you become pregnant after tubal reversal?
That is the $64,000 question. We do not have a crystal ball.
We cannot predict the future… but what we can tell you is this:
- After tubal reversal your natural fertility will be restored
- Each month you have a chance to become pregnant
- Over the course of several years…those monthly chances add up.
In general about 2 out of every 3 patients who have reversal will become pregnant.
The chance of pregnancy after reversal and after age 40 is about 34%. Each year after age 40 the chances of pregnancy do decrease.
More information: Chances of pregnancy after tubal reversal based on age
With IVF you will have to pay for each IVF cycle. With tubal reversal you pay once…and then each month you have sex.
Having sex is more fun than IVF treatment! It is also cheaper.
Please, please, please don’t wait to get pregnant!
We have many women contact us inquiring about tubal reversal surgery. Many of these women will then wait 5 to 10 years before having reversal.
Please don’t wait too long if you really want to get pregnant. This is true if you do IVF or tubal reversal.
Each year you wait to have tubal reversal you lose 12 chances.
Each year your monthly chances become less. Do not wait too long!
Your chances of getting pregnant at age 37 are a hell of a lot better than getting pregnant at age 47!
We have had many patients send us their tubal ligation records in their mid 30’s only to show up for reversal in their late 40’s.
Nothing is more depressing than seeing a patient who waited 10 years to have reversal surgery. These women have seriously decreased their chances of becoming pregnant because they have waited too long.
Do not be that person.
Recommendations if you are considering tubal reversal
If you want a chance at becoming a mom again naturally then we recommend you send us your tubal ligation records for a free review. You can send us your records using our HIPAA compliant medical record upload portal.
More information: Sending records to A Personal Choice
The video below provides more information on how to determine if you are a candidate for tubal reversal surgery.
Again…we strongly recommend you do not delay your decision for too long. This is true no matter if you are doing tubal ligation reversal surgery or in-vitro fertilization treatments.
