DATE: July 23, 2019
CATEGORY: Tubal Reversal
If you decide on tubal reversal I hope you come to Lakeshore Tubal reversal. But wherever you decide to go, you need to be aware of a risk associated with the reversal. The reversal surgery has similar risks to a “D and C” or ovarian cyst but when a woman has had a reversal of a tubal ligation, she has an increased risk of an ectopic pregnancy. The important thing to remember is that having your tubes tied, in the first place, increases your risk of an ectopic or tubal pregnancy. A tubal pregnancy is one that develops in the Fallopian tube instead of in the uterus. They never grow into a baby because the fallopian tube is not big enough to hold them but they can cause heavy bleeding. The good news is that if you catch an ectopic early, it can be treated with a pill or a shot.
What to Do If You Are Pregnant
We teach patients a simple way to remember what to do if the get pregnant. Make a fist with your palm facing you. Raise your index finger, that’s a urine pregnancy test. Next, raise your middle finger, that’s a blood pregnancy test to be done if the urine pregnancy test is positive. The two fingers make a “V” that stands for the vaginal ultrasound that you will need if the blood pregnancy test value is high enough. The final step is to look again at your 2 fingers, they look like a rabbit’s ears to remind you to get this testing done “quick as a bunny”. Having your tubes tied, in the first place, has a risk of ectopic pregnancy of about one in two hundred, our patients have had a risk of one in forty (about 2 ½ percent ). Most people who do reversals report ten to thirty percent. I think the way we do reversals, with dye testing, sews the tube in a way that it is not only sewn together but sewn open.