Does any one know any women who have become pregnant years after having a tubal ligation?
I found this old thread but it doesn’t answer the question of how often it happens.
I know some of you dopers are wise in finding answers to questions, so maybe you can satisfy my curiosity.
Yup, me=)
Now that was a ‘you have got to be shitting me moment’ …
Was a clamp job, followed a fair amount of time later by a post op infection [for an entirely different thing entirely] that popped the scar tissue just enough.
Went back in and had both tubes well and finally snipped…which seems to have fixed the problem.
Nothing negative about the original proceedure, just a really singular occurance but it did also get a ‘you have got to be shitting me’ from my original ob-gyn <giggle>
I [once i got over the first shock] had trouble not laughing for several weeks, it was just so amusing to be living a punch line from a joke…
[and for those who are relly curious, I did have an abortion. I got tied for a reason, I am addicted to living and pregnancy is very detrimental to that condition…]
Did your ob/gyn let you know the statistics on how many women actually get pregnant after having the procedure done? I assume its very few, but does happen.
I heard of a woman who got pregnant after both he and the husband were spayed. Kill me now.
CDC Fact Sheet: Risk of Ectopic Pregnancy after Tubal Sterilization
Tubal Ligation: Some Questions and Answers
American Pregnancy Association
I don’t know any women who have had post-sterilisation pregnancies personally, but there’s enough evidence of it having happened, that even though it’s unlikely, it is possible. The fact that failure rates have been calculated is evidence in itself.
I cannot find cites right now, but the actual statistical risk varies, based on the individuals age at sterilisation, the method used (and of course, the doctor’s competence). From memory, the clips had the highest failure rate (though still quite low). I can’t recall if ‘tying’ or the ‘slash ‘n’ burn’ method (sorry, can’t remember the medical terminology for those methods) had the lowest failure rate, but they were both quite low.
Hope that helps 
Thanks for the links Essured.
Shocking that 7 out of 1000 will become pregnant after.
Yup, NY state has a full disclosure law in place where you sit and discus all sorts of interesting things. I was also told that a small percent of women also get their cramps made worse. I got unlucky enough to be one of them too…feels like labor on my 3 worst days each time. I thought my ob-gyn was much nicer than the volunteers at planned parenthood. I definitely recommended him to friends and kept him for the 5 years I still lived in the city.
Of course it was spiffy getting to watch the proceedure on tape afterwards - though I could personally have done without the feeling of someone trying to peel off my shoulderblades with a screwdriver [when they inflate your abdomen, it can put pressure on some very unhappy nerves even after they deflate you=]
Honestly, If I could convince the navy asshat docs that I have to see to give me something to totally supress me for the final 10 years I have left before it stops on its own, I would GLADLY. The monthly pain, and dumping of clots, and ikkyness, and cost of supplies and bloating and assorted other garbage for ‘keeping my boody ready to reproduce’ that is [hopefully] NEVER going to happen is stupid.
I personally know two women who each conceived a child after tubal ligation. Both went on to carry to term uneventfully and eventually got re-fixed.
Working in the urgent care and ER setting as I did for over 15 years, I saw about 5 or 6 ectopic pregnancies which occurred after tubal ligation.
The human body has an amazing ability to repair at times, and the fertility function is a difficult one to overcome.
I knew a dude who impregnated his wife after he was clipped and tied.
Apparantly he has FOUR vas defrens. He had to go back and have the other two cut as well.