Experiences with a Tubal Ligation or Vasectomy

I had a tubal ligation and it wasn't that bad. That was the first time I'd ever been put under for anything, so I was pretty nervous. I was out of the hospital that day, and I was sent home with pain pills, but I didn't even need them. I was sore when I sat down or getting up from a sitting position, but nothing to terrible. I don't even have any scars. I hope this helps!

Hi B.
I just had my tubes cauterized 5 days ago. I'm 40 and have 2 sons ages 5 and 2. My husband has had 3 surgeries for hernia, lost a testicle due to complications with the last one and now has to have another one, but hopefully laparscopically this time so we decided to save him further stress to that area and go for a tubal instead.
After reading a ton of negative, scary information on the internet I found this site and have since seen just as many if not more positive responses from women who have had the procedure done with no regrets.
My own experience has been fantastic - virtually NO pain afterwards, just a little tender at the belly button and I did have one super tiny incision on the side of my tummy which will likely be unnoticable when healed. I had a bit of muscle soreness in my neck and shoulder afterwards but that went away in a day and I didnt' require any pain meds after my surgery at all. Just took it easy for a few days and I feel almost back to normal now.
If I was 30 I might not have done it just in case I wanted more children later, but at this point, we are done with babies and really just want to enjoy our boys now - so make sure you are positive you don't want any more babies.
The suregery itself was like a nap - I've never had surgery before - which was nice for me after chasing little boys around all day! :)
All in all I recommend the surgery for any woman who is sick of hormones and invasive birth control methods and is truly done having children.

B.,

Before you decide you should make sure that your husband is willing to go through with the "whole" experience that he would have to do. Besides the inital steralization for him he would have to do follow up "drop offs" to see if the surgery was a complete success. My husband and I chose this form for our birth control after having our two kids. 3 1/2 years later I bacame pregnant again to our COMPLETE SURPRISE!!!!
The pregnancy did not go full term and I had to go in for a D&C after my body would not naturally abort the baby. I had my tubes tied at that time. For me the surgery was not as difficult as losing the baby but it is a personal choice. Whichever you do I wish you luck and hope you have better luck on your first try than what we did!

I had the Essure procedure done recently. It is where they place tiny springs in your tubes and over 3 months the springs cause the tubes to scar shut (a natural process). 3 months after having the springs put in you get an ultrasound to determine completion of the tubes closing and then you're done. This involves no surgery, cutting, hormones--it's done in your OB/GYN's office. This is not a procedure to have done if you might ever consider reversal in the future--it is permanent.

My husband just had a vasectomy on New Years Eve-great way to ring in the new hear!- and is doing fine. The whole procedure took only about 20 min. He was a little uncomfortable for a few days, but other than that things went great. An upside to the vasectomy is that it is cheaper than a tubal, and you have already had 4 babies! Let him have his moment! Another option, all though some insurance won't cover, is Mirena. It is actually more effective than a vasectomy! Good luck!

Have him do the vasectomy and be sure he goes in for his follow up to be sure the "live ones" are all gone. Thankfully my husband went in for his follow up after his procedure because it turned out that for some reason it "didn't take." So he had to have it again. Definitely follow the dr's orders about the ice too.

Have you considered Essure? It is a permanent birth control offered to women that doesn't require surgery... or any down time. Check out the website
http://www.essure.com/Home/Understanding/WhatisEssure/tab...

My husband had a vasectomy last year - our insurance did cover it, the recovery time was just a few days (but those few days he laid in bed with a bag of peas and didn't move). He has no regrets though and has been telling his buddies (who are in the same boat as us) that's it is actually a pretty easy procedure and that he's glad he's done it.

Best of luck to you!
K.

One very important thing to look into is any family history of Tubals, my mothers side of the family has had nothing but bad experiences from tubals, Hormone issues, heavy periods... so that was a huge deciding factor for us, I wont be getting one as I am already a hormonal wife anyway...lol

But some family's/ people don't have these issues, or some just have one or the other. I would do some looking in on your family's history if there is any.

Also for us my husband is the one who is just plain done with having kids. So that also helps in the decision. He will be getting his vasectomy this summer after our third and final little one is born.

My husband had a vasectomy over two years ago and it has been great. He did have some dull pain in the first week or so, but it was within 'reason' meaning he could work fine and it went away to never come back again. We are very happy with our decision and recommend it to everyone as an effective choice. My husband reasoned he should do it since it was way easier, reversable and I had taken over the responsibility of prevention up until then.

S.

Everyone does what they do for THEIR reasons...here was ours... I did the tubal ligation instead of my husband getting a vasectomy because right before we decided to do something I thought I was pregnant again. That freaked me out. I didn't want another baby. I would have have the baby and would have been happy, but it turned out I wasn't pregnant. That is when I decided...I never wanted another baby. My husband would have had another no problem. My thought process was this..if something happened to my husband, would I want another baby - no. If something happened to me, would my husband have another baby - maybe. That is why I took care of it. For me the procedure was no big deal at all. I was just a little sore at the belly button for a few days.

Good Luck!

I do not know how old you are, how many children, or do you have both sexes. I had a tubal ligation at the age of 22, and it was a huge mistake. I have two sons, and had a girl stillbirth. I wanted children, but my selfish husband did not. I am an only child, and he has numerous siblings. I divorced him after 21 years of miseries, and was only 17 when I married him. I found myself at the age of 38 unable to have a baby. I would been so happy to have one, but it was too late for me. I wrote letters to doctors beggin them to help me reverse the tubal ligation, but was turned down. It was too expensive, and my insurance will not cover it. I am now 51, and will be 52 very soon. My ex was ten years older than me, and would never have a vasectomy to please me. I did it to please him, and thought I was married for life. My advice to you if you are young, or will want more kids in the future do not do it. Let your hubby gets a vasectomy, and put it on a credit card. God forbide something happen in the future you will feel like me "cheated", and bitter. I can't adopt either, because I do not make enough money.

I had a tubal when I was 24 years old, and have NO childeren but for me it was the best choice I ever made. But I will say that right after the operation I had the worst cramps ever, think of your period and times it by 10! But after that I was fine, only three tiny scars and that was it, now my period is right on time and only last about 4 days and is never very heavy. I love it! There is only one down side to a tubal if you want it undone your insurance will not cover it! And my insurance covered the everything. So that is a bouns. Good luck with making a your choice.

Vasectomy is an easier, quick, cheaper, less painful, quicker recovery, outpatient procedure. If you are both equally sure you don't want more children, vasectomy is the way to go. I know a lot of men who have had it, including my ex, and they all said it was no big deal. They were back to normal in a day or so. Yes, there is a follow-up appt(s) and that is all explained to them before they agree to the procedure. A tubal is surgery with a six week recovery.

If you aren't equally sure you don't want more children, then the one who is most sure may be the better candidate for sterilization. You don't know what life is going to bring (death, divorce, new relationships, remarriage, etc.) and it can be sad to have limited options if years down the line one of you would like to have another child and can't.

I agree that vasectomy is very minor compared to a tubal ligation. The only reason I would have had a tubal is if I would have had to have a c-section with my daughter. I didn't, so my husband had a vasectomy. He had the procedure done on a Friday afternoon and went back to work on Monday. Be sure to have him lay down and do absolutely nothing for 24 hours following - our doc even had my hubby pee in a mason jar next to the bed! Keep ice on it and bring him meals and everything. It'll make him feel better if you baby him for the weekend!

I had a tubal and had no ill effects from it, actually my periods are lighter and my hormones are more in line than they ever have been. I had the procedure done one day and was back to class the next day. No scars, 3 tiny incisions. The reason why I had the tubal vs hubby getting snipped is because there is a family history of prostate cancer his side of the family and a friend of the family who happens to work with a bunch of urologists said that none of the urologists would do a snip snip on a male with a family history of prostate cancer due to the higher incidence of prostate cancer with a vasectomy. I didn't mind it at all I had all my faith in my OB/GYN and what was cool afterwords his showed me pictures of before and after and I knew for sure that I was done with this baby business (my last pregnancy was identical twins, I was afraid to have more kids too many complications). Plus my hubby waited on me hand and foot the day I had the tubal done but to be honest I really didn't need it I felt perfectly fine.

I would say that if your hubby is willing - go for it. My husband did it and was sore for a couple of days. Although even he admits he wasn't sure how much of it was physcological. Just baby him and take care of him. The only thing to watch out for - he still had live swimmers until about six months after the procedure. I called our insurance and they said that they covered the procedure as long is it wasn't a certain kind (the v-clip or something like that) - just call before hand and make sure. Good Luck with your decision!

Our family has experience with a vascetomy, a reversal and a tubal! We had two children, decided we were done and then 8 years later changed our minds and had two more!

The vasectomy was an outpatient procedure that only required local anethetic. The whole thing took about an hour and then he stayed home for three das "resting" with bags of frozen vegetables for ice packs. It really wasn't a big deal and the three day recovery was because he's a little on the whiny side when he's sick (arn't they all?). Seriously, he was up walking around that evening. After the fact he agreed it was no big deal and he's encouraged other friends to have the procedure done.

The reversal was a different story - that was an inpatient procedure that required general anesthetic (which he had a bad reaction to) and about a 5 day recovery. It was more painful because it required larger incisions and a lot of tugging and pulling to get everything hooked back up properly.

I had a tubal the day after a typical vaginal delivery. I had general anesthesia, and the process took about 4-5 hours start to finish. Describing the recovery that was mixed with childbirth recovery, is hard - but having recovered from three previous deliveries, there were some noticable differences. I had a lot of pain at the incision site and stayed on pain medication for almost 2 weeks (not typical for me at all after childbirth). The scar in my belly button took a long time to heal and soften up, but is almost completely undectable now, 9 months later.

My advice is if you are both SURE, go with the vasectomy. It's way easier, outpatient, no general anesthesia required and way cheaper than a tubal. Reversal for either of these surgeries is expensive and painful, so you should try to be as sure as you can be. Hope that helps! Good Luck!

Something to think about - I had my tubes removed at age 50. The hormone impbalance caused me to have severe hot flashes, which I have been experiencing for abut four years since then. Before the operation I had zero hot flashes, now I have been having one every hour most days.

also check into a process called essure...it is for the women, is not surgery, has way less down time and is probably covered by your insurance. i believe at some places it is an outpatient procedure.

I had a Tubal, at age 29 best thing I ever did.
I was the one what got pregnant every time I turned around so I gave me peace!
Not to hard and recovery was very fast. So any regrets yes but very short lived.
Hope this helps!

I would not do a tubal ligation if there is another way. I have not had a good experience with it, even though it's nice knowing I can't have any more babies. It can mess up your hormones. It can cause heavier periods, more cramping and the list goes on and on. It's a major surgery for a woman and an office procedure for a man.

I've never had a tubal ligation but my doctor performs that type of operation at the hospital because it requires actual surgery and general anesthesia which always involves a risk. He however performs the vasectomies on men in the clinic and it takes about 20 minutes and the risk is negligible.

i had a tubal done almost 2 yrs(june of 08) ago and in a way i regret it but in a way i am very happy. i have two wonderful boys 5 and 19 months and will always want that little girl. but my doctor used clamps. she does not believe in the whole tying and burning the ends. so there is always the possibility that the clamps will come off and i get pregnant again. it was a out patient day surgery. i had one incision site and that was above the hair line. it went good and my insurance paid for it. my husbands insurance would of paid for him to have a vasectomy(blue cross blue shield) but he did not want to do it. he thought it would make him feel less of a man. but any ways i did not have any bad side effects other than it made it a little harder to lose the weight and lift things for a while, about a week or so.but only YOU can decided whats best for your family. but only do it if you are 100% sure you don't want more kids. we might adopt later on down the road but not right this minute cause we can't afford it.
S. mom to two wonderful boys 5 and 19months. been married to a great guy for 3 almost 4 yrs but been together for almost 9 yrs.