IVF Vs. Tubal Reversal – How To Decide

Many women who have had a tubal ligation have been told it is a permanent form of birth control. When they change their minds about wanting another child, their doctors usually counsel having an in vitro fertilization or IVF. What these women usually don’t know is that tying their tubes can be reversed with an operation. So you are left wanting to know about IVF vs. tubal reversal and which is best.

A tubal reversal is a micro-surgical technique of repairing the fallopian tubes where they were cut. The preparation is minimal for the surgery including some review of your tubal ligation operative records. If you have a BMI greater than 30, it is suggested you get it down for your own surgical safety. You can check out this page to determine your BMI if you need to: www.tubal-reversal.net/body-mass-index-bmi.php

To undergo the IVF process, you will need to have a series of injections. Some will be subcutaneous which means just under the skin but some have to be put into the muscle. For each drug you get, you will have to go in each day for a few days to receive the shots. This is just to prepare your body such as stimulating it to produce more eggs at once than normal.

Now your doctor gets to remove the eggs…or does he? Well, yes, but not before another injection just before ovulation. Your doctor will also be monitoring you to make sure he can catch the eggs before they being their journey to your uterus. He will use a needle to capture the eggs that your body has been overstimulated to produce. Seems like you are to be around a lot of needles.

Once the eggs are withdrawn from your body, they will be fertilized and left to develop for some time in the lab after they reach the correct maturity. One reason they overstimulated your body to produce more eggs is so more than one can be put back into your body after fertilization. You will most likely get two or three. The rest will generally be frozen and can be used if this cycle does not produce a viable pregnancy. Oh, yes, and you get more injections.

Your chances of success will depend upon many things. Did the doctor do a careful and carefully placed implantation meaning is he experienced enough? However, all the eggs that were not implanted can be frozen for a future implantation…if you want to go through all the shots and what they do to you again. There will be added risks to you and your child by using IVF. You will want to do some research online to make sure you are aware of these.

Add to all of the above the success rates of each individual course of treatments. Depending upon where you look it is from a 10 – 30% chance you will get pregnant. Higher percentages for more embryos being implanted.

Let’s look at how the success rates of IVF compare to the success rates for tubal reversal. You can look around the Internet to find out what is generally quoted or you can ask the surgeon you are looking at what his specific success rates are. If he doesn’t know, check out Dr. Berger who publishes his success rates right on his website at www.tubal-reversal.net/. Using those, you can see that the overall success percentage is 69%. If you look at all the charts given, though, you can see it varies from a high of 82%. You will have to see where you fit in. And the good news is that once the surgery is done, if no other problems crop up, then you can keep on trying to have a baby however many times you need all for the cost of the one surgery. No undergoing cycle after cycle of IVF treatments.

Finally is the cost comparison. A cycle of IVF is averaging $10,000 to $12,000 in the U.S. It can be as high as $20,000 though that goes for tubal reversals as well. However, chances are you will undergo more than one cycle of IVF. Doctors say to expect an average of three cycles. Add it up yourself. Now a tubal reversal will average $8,000 to $9,000 with some doctors charging much more. But you don’t have to undergo an average of three tubal reversals to get the job done. Taking this into account along with all the above and you can truly see the best answer in IVF vs. tubal reversal.