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Pregnancy AND BIRTH after Tubal ... without reversal
by Jean
I keep reading "CAN I BE PREGNANT?" queries on this site but never hear the outcomes. For anyone interested, I live in the UK and had my tubes clipped at age 40 in October 97 and our son was born in September 98. Pregnancy and birth were completely normal and baby weighed ten pounds. BUT... during pregnancy I suffered abdominal pain in my left side which was sometimes completely incapacitating. Various hospital doctors and GPs gave different theories for the pain. One said ligament may have been clipped instead of tube. Another said it was just Round Ligament pain, common in pregnancy. Another diagnosed 'Trapped Wind'... and this was after I'd been ambulanced to the hospital... while muttering about "medical-legal implications". But every doctor said nothing could be done about it until after the baby was born. One nasty midwife even said "You wouldn't want to HARM your baby, would you?"
At ten weeks after the birth, I visited the consultant - different man from first time round - to arrange a second operation to fix my tubes again. In the waiting room, with my baby in his carrier, I chatted with two women. One woman was about to have a hysterectomy and said "it seems to go with sterilisation". Her daughter was 13, ALSO born AFTER her first tubal ligation had failed! The other woman in the waiting room was booking in to get her tubes done and was shocked to be talking to TWO women who'd had babies afterwards! Anyone thinking of having tubal ligation should think of it as a method of contraception with a failure rate like all the others. Nothing in life is guaranteed.
I found people's reactions to my pregnancy were either "This baby is determined to be born" or "Are you going to sue the surgeon?" We chose to be thankful for our baby born against the odds. Money is not the issue here. I'm sure the surgeon did his best, and I can find no reason to be vindictive towards him. The outcome for our family was a good one, though none of us will ever get over the initial shock!
I started reading the Post Tubal Women website because I began having weird symptoms after the second tubal - hair loss, severe PMS, menses stopping and starting within the week etc - all dismissed by one of my GPs. I insisted my problems were hormonal... by age 42 a woman knows her own body... but either he hasn't heard of tubal ligation syndrome or he isn't going to admit to it. I've had to take charge of my own treatment with herbal remedies plus vitamins and minerals, and would be interested to hear of any success-or-scare stories with "alternative" remedies. How long are you supposed to take herbs like Wild Yam for? Is it for a few months till you're back to normal, or is it for life?
Sorry I cannot take emails as this is my daughter's computer, but I will watch the messages and answer any questions about pregnancy after TL as best I can. I know it would have helped me a lot to talk with someone who'd gone through it. It's a tremendous shock to find yourself pregnant after getting all psyched up for the operation to end your pram-pushing days for good!
CPTwomen members have testified in front of the IL and CA Court, the IL Gov. Task Force, the Sunset Review Committee, (Senator Liz Figueroa), NOW, and more. What occurred has been made a matter of public record. The CPTwomen are making public the issues which millions of other women have faced in silence. Issues such as women are not informed at the time of their tubal ligation that there is a risk of hormonal imbalance occurring. For the CPTwomen to continue its mission to move this issue to the forefront of government, we must ask for a small contribution/subscription fee from all those who wish to communicate with us and participate at the Coalition's Bulletin Board
