Are there any recorded instances in which this happened? How about one or the other done up?
A friend who had a vasectomy done was told by his doctor that he might be producing viable sperm for up to several weeks after the surgery. He was scheduled to bring in a sample for fertility testing in about 2 months. And until then, assume that a pregnancy was possible and take preventative measures.
This was several years ago; perhaps this has changed with new surgical techniques. But maybe not; it would still be advisable to take precautions.
A Goggle search on “vasectomy failure rate” produced a range of estimates, of which 1 in 2000 was typical. That’s very low, but obviously not zero. Several cites mention a similar failure rate for tubal ligation. Thus, if a couple did both, the probability would be something like 1 in 4,000,000. Still not zero.
According to these guys, vasectomy fails at 1 to 3 per 1000, and tubal ligation fails at 4 per 1000.
This means that the rate for both methods to fail simultaneously would be up to 12 per million. So, out of a million couples with both tubal ligation and vasectomy, 12 would experience pregnancy.
Well, let’s assign a value of one for a non-vasectomy or non-tied tubes. Assign a value of negative one to a vasectomy or tied tubes. Multiply. If the product is negative, then there is no pregnancy. If it’s positive, then there is a pregnancy.
1 x 1 = 1 (pregnancy)
-1 x 1 = -1 (non-pregnancy)
1 x -1 = -1 (non-pregnancy)
-1 x -1 = 1 (pregnancy)
See, it’s inevitable that if both parties are ‘snipped’ the result will be a baby!
So the next question is: how likely is it that there are a million (or however many to get the statistical chance you want) couples with both? Since the failure rates on each method is low, it seems unlikely that many couples would opt to do both.
I suppose a few might have a “fairness” issue: “if I have surgery, you should, too”. And there will be a much larger number of couples for whom the surgeries predate their present couplehood. And I suppose there might be one or two that BOTH chose to have the surgery done unbeknownst to the other partner.
But I’d guess (and it’s just a guess) that the total number of such couples worldwide would be short of a million. I’d wager heavily it’s less than a million in the US.
I had my tubes tied and came up pregnant about 12 years later. Mind you, I had a post op infection that caused a bit of inflammation that popped open the scar plug in the tube. Of course, I had fertility problems - if I was an indian, I would have had to name my 2 miscarriages ortho-novum-dont-work and ortho-novum-dont-work-and-rubber-broke. I would have loved to pass my fertillity on to someone else [just not my screwed up genetics]
There are several different methods of typing off the tubes; the most common (I think) is to make a loop, tie around it, then sever the loop, leaving the cut ends tied together alongside each other, but crimped off. It’s possible for a new opening to form in the two parts that are tied alongside each other (would this technically be a fistula?).
Thats more or less what my doc said happened. Although he described it more as the scar plug moved creating the opening - and i think any opening can be called a fistula natural or artificial [isnt fistula latin for ‘hole’ ]
So If I have sex 4 million times I might end up with another kid? Hmmm, sounds like a challenge.
Good morning, Uncle Rojelio. Your mission, should you choose to accept it…
Actually, it’s even more challenging than that. The failure rates I found were reported on a lifetime basis, i.e., how many patients would have children notwithstanding the procedure. BTW, one of the big sources of variance in the statistics hinged on how one accounted for early failures due to sperm-in-the-pipeline (as it were). The number I cited was typical after filtering out that factor.