My Experience Having A Tubal Ligation

Here is my experience having a tubal ligation. My doctors told me a month ago that I had to get off birth control since my blood pressure had been high the past few years on the pills. I was also having chronic headaches from the pills. My husband and I have a fourteen year old and an eleven year old and we had already discussed not having any more kids. As like many men, my husband did not want to have a vasectomy so I opted  to have a tubal ligation, which is a permanent method of birth control. I had my procedure last Friday. In case anyone is considering it, I wanted to share my experience.

First, make sure a tubal ligation is what you want to have. It is a permanent method of sterilization and you would need to have it surgically reversed in order to become pregnant again. The tubal ligation is 99% effective the first year it is done. However, not everything is perfect and after several years, there is a very small number of women that have became pregnant without the reversal, but it is not that common.

This procedure is also known as having your tubes tied. A tubal ligation is perfomed under local anesthesia or general anesthesia and can be done through the vaginal area, or through a laparoscopy,  or a minilaparotomy or by a regular laparotomy. There are three different ways you can have a tubal ligation. You can have your tubes cauterized, or have the clips put on the end of your tubes or have the Falope rings placed around your tubes. All of these methods prevent the sperm from reaching the fallopian tubes. I had mine cauterized and the Falope rings put on so I feel this will be very effective. A relatively new procedure that doctors in the past few years have performed is the Essure tubal. In this procedure, coils are placed in the tubes and then scar tissue forms over the coils preventing the sperm from reaching the tubes.

I had my surgery on Friday of this past week. That was four days ago. Since then, I have had mild vaginal bleeding and severe to mild stomach cramps since the surgery. For some reason, my right side is more painful than my left. I have also had mild to stinging pain at my incision but not too bad. The pain is mostly when I get up or sit down. Since my surgery, I have also been very tired and have napped a lot. I am returning to work tomorrow.

Overall, I believe it was a worthwhile and good procedure. Since I was not having any more kids and my blood pressure had become a bigger health issue, I decided on something that was right for me as far as permanent birth control.  Anyone deciding on birth control, should always do plenty of research and go with what you think is best.