My Experience with Tubal Reversal and the Impact on Post Tubal LigationSyndrome Symptoms

I woke up at 4 AM on March 23rd, well before my alarm. Butterflies in my stomach. Everyone still sound asleep. Checked and rechecked my bags. I went through the motions of heading to the airport without much thought; my husband drove and I babbled the whole hour about anything and everything. It wasn't til he had to leave me at the security check line and head back home that it really hit me that I was on my way. Surgery was finally coming, after feeling like it was eternally months away. 

I flew to Los Angeles from Portland. Then to Dallas, and from there to a small airport in McAllen, Texas. I flowed through each connection with minimal anxiety. There was a peace over everything, and it felt like I was going exactly where I was meant to.  

My reversal was performed the next day, March 24th 2015. It felt like a whirlwind. Multiple doctors, nurses, swirling about and working in synchronized fluidity. Their voices calm, their words kind, and their determination evident after finding things a little worse off in there than my operative reports let on. 

I'm about 5 weeks post surgery now, if my math is correct but admittedly, numbers aren't my strong suit. 

I will go ahead and put this out there before I articulate my personal experience with tubal reversal as a remedy for PTLS; not every woman will find relief through reversal. There are so many variables at play that there's no knowing 100% if it's the answer for you or not. It's very much a gamble, one you need to weigh for yourself. For me, this made the most sense to try before the other more drastic options and we were willing to spend the money even knowing it may not change anything. 

At 5 weeks (and one cycle already), these are the symptoms I am officially able to say are gone for me:

Unexpected tears and mood swings

Night sweats

Abnormal periods, longer cycles,  heavier periods. 

Pelvic pain (This has been a huge deal for me. 20 months of daily pelvic pressure and pain were gone overnight.)

Bleeding after intercourse

Severe ovulation pain

Increased bleeding in gums

Loss of balance, light-headedness, and dizziness

Hair loss and thinning in head (there are baby hairs along the front of my hairline where the lost hair is regrowing, I couldn't believe it when I noticed it two weeks ago)

Unexpected attacks of bloat

Tenderness of breast (this was a daily thing after tubal ligation, stopped happening about 9 days after reversal)

Sore joints, aching, tendons and muscles

Mental confusion, lack of concentration, feeling "in a fog". 

Abnormally high anxiety 

I do not believe this is all coincidence. These things that impacted my daily life for close to two years dissipating within weeks of reversal leads me to feel even more strongly that we need to push for true informed consent for women considering sterilization. My quality of living suffered greatly. I can't get back those 20 months. Women who live with it way longer than that cannot reclaim that time either. When we have doctors telling people that Post Vasectomy Pain Syndrome is "a thing" and exists and that they'll treat it for them, and turn around to tell women that there's absolutely no chance sterilization can hurt a woman, there is a serious damn problem. 

I'm not done with this issue. I'm still on fire over it. I'm still holding the hands of the women I've met still stuck in it. I'm still talking loud and spreading the word every way I can manage. I'm healing physically, but I will never be the same. 

A Personal Update; Conception after tubal ligation.

In any other situation, I probably wouldn't share this experience. I'd talk about it with my close friends, my husband, my family, but not be as open about it as I've managed to be in the last week. But I feel like if I cannot lay out my experience in full disclosure, I'm not doing everything I can to push toward true informed consent prior to tubal ligation.

I was diagnosed with a blighted ovum around a week ago. If you haven't heard this term before, the basics of it are that an egg was fertilized, made it into the proper place (uterus) by some miracle and implanted, but failed to develop past this. There was a gestational sac measuring roughly 7 weeks, low hCG hormone but no signs of life. They cannot tell me if this will happen again or not. I was originally told the failure rate was 2-10 women out of 1000. After the procedure, I am told 1 in 300. Then later, I am told its even higher for women like myself who had it during a c-section. And while being diagnosed with this blighted ovum I am told the failure rates vary from study to study, and that it "isn't as rare as I'd think". She scheduled a second ultrasound to either a.) confirm diagnosis or b.) ensure my body has cleared things out all the way on its own. Without much detail I will say it'll be option b tomorrow.

So here I am. I can now safely say that tubal ligation has failed me in just about every way it can so far, only one year out. Now my care provider fears a future ectopic, and I can't say this doesn't concern me. We were both shocked that we weren't dealing with that this time. Neither of us were optimistic upon my arrival. I am thankful. It could have been worse.

I am asked several questions lately and feel it easiest to address them here.

Why doesn't my doctor offer to put me on birth control pills to attempt to relieve certain symptoms or prevent another event like this? Part of why I (and numerous other women) had this procedure done is because medically, its contraindicated to have me on these pills. I'm a high risk for blood clot and stroke based on my history. So, it is because she's a good doctor that this option isn't offered to me.

Why will they not offer a hysterectomy? There's a few reasons here. The main one being that it wouldn't fix the most pressing issue, which is the daily ovarian pain. Unless they removed the ovaries as well, which isn't optimal. Another large reason, to doctors and myself, is my age. I'm not even 25 yet. And my own reasoning is I simply don't want that. Why is hysterectomy now viewed as some 100% normal and natural event in the life of women? It's a big choice. Typically done as a matter of saving their life. I've been checked, its not cancer, its not endometriosis, my uterus isn't the issue and I don't feel as if throwing my body into another whirlwind of hormonal imbalances is the solution to my specific set of issues. This is NOT to say it isn't a helpful solution for some women dealing with PTLS. But it is so dependent on what your symptoms are.



Still counting down until surgery. Still plugging away to show the ugly side of our "neat and tidy" sterilizations. Please continue submitting your stories to tubal.lie.gation@gmail.com . I have several in the queue at the moment that I will work on posting over the next week or so.