Success Rate Of Tubal Ligation Reversal Surgery And IVF Treatment

It is common for women who have had tubal ligation surgery to want to have more children. Women who want to achieve pregnancy after having a tubal ligation face 2 main options: in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or tubal ligation reversal . There are many factors to consider when making this decision, but success rates are the biggest factor for most of our patients. In other words, which one gives you the highest chance of achieving a successful pregnancy and delivering a healthy baby?

This post serves to inform patients of the reported success rates of each surgery to help them make informed decisions on which treatment to pursue. Tubal reversal, aside from having a lower cost than in-vitro fertilization (IVF), boasts higher pregnancy success rates when compared to IVF treatment.

In a study published this year of 961 patients who underwent tubal ligation reversal surgery, an impressive 82.6% of patients achieved intrauterine pregnancy after surgery. Diving deeper, the study revealed that age greatly affected pregnancy rates. For patients aged less than 40 years old, 90.3% achieved pregnancy, whereas 53.9% of patients aged 40 years or more achieved pregnancy1. Other factors that have shown to impact pregnancy success rate after a tubal reversal surgery are the type of tubal reversal previously performed, the remaining length of fallopian tube for the surgeon to restore, and the sperm count of a woman’s partner.

IVF treatment, on the other hand, demonstrated a pregnancy success rate of 28.4%2. When compared, tubal ligation reversal clearly has higher pregnancy success rates than IVF treatment (82.6% vs 28.4%).  The high success rates of reversal surgery is great news for women who want to once again get pregnant after having a tubal ligation, because it boasts many other advantages to IVF. 

First, tubal reversal surgery is a one-time expense and procedure that allows you to achieve a natural pregnancy as often as you like. With IVF, however, treatment is needed for each cycle within which you’d like to conceive a child. The cost of treatment can add up quite quickly, which may deter patients from attempting to have more than one child. Second, tubal reversal surgery typically costs less than IVF.

Additionally, IVF treatment is associated with a higher chance of multiple pregnancies (conceiving twins, for example), which can pose a health risk for the patient. Tubal reversal surgery, however, allows for natural conception, which has lower rates of multiple births. While the above success pregnancy rates are from published studies, success pregnancy rates vary by each individual patient. As mentioned above, multiple factors affect a woman’s chance of achieving a successful pregnancy after tubal reversal.