Among all the tubal reversal doctors that say they will do your tubal ligation reversal surgery, how do you know which is the right one to choose? In the rest of this article, I hope you will learn about some of the information you should ask any potential surgeon to find out if he or she will be right for you. After all, whether it is to have another child or for relief of post tubal ligation syndrome, you are putting so much of your future into this person’s hands. You want to make the right choice.
Let’s begin with the surgeon’s background. Where did he go to school? This includes his or her undergraduate schooling as well as the medical school. Was it pretty exclusive and were they top ranking schools? How about where he did his internship and residency? Were these done at notable institutions? What sort of tubal reversal training did he receive during this time? Did he even get to see even one tubal ligation reversal being done during this time? Because this is considered an elective surgery and most insurance won’t pay for it, it doesn’t get done in hospitals where most doctors are trained.
Now, let’s ask about their experience. What kind of experience do any of the tubal reversal doctors you are looking at have in actually performing the surgery? How many times a year do the surgeons you are looking at actually perform this operation? Many doctors who are happy to perform the operation for you do this as a sometimes occurrence. Does the doctor you are looking at perform this operation every working day of the year, except for vacation and holidays? Or has he maybe done three in the last four years or some other ridiculous statistic? Is this all your doctor does or is this a very sometime thing that he does now and then in addition to doing lots of other things? How well can he possibly do the surgery if he doesn’t keep in practice?
What techniques does your doctor use to insure to the best of his ability that your tubes will be open once the surgery is done? Does he just “eyeball” the alignment of the tubes and then do a dye test afterward to see if they are open? Or does he use a stint to line up the tubes to be sure they are open even before he begins suturing the tubes together? You need to think if you want to take a chance on paying for the surgery and not even being sure the job gets done correctly. How invasive will his surgery technique be into your body? How large are the cuts he will make?
How about his communications? Does he provide lines of communication to answer all your questions? How easy is it to talk to him or his staff? Do you feel you are being heard and listened to? Can you get into contact with any of his previous tubal reversal patients to get a recommendation? What do others, including his patients, say about him?
Another factor to consider, which for many women will be the first factor to consider, is the cost of the operation. Just how much will that do-it-once-a-year surgeon cost you? $20,000? $10,000? I wonder. Is he trying to make up for doing so few with that price? In this case, you may just find that the best surgeon is not the one who will cost you the most. In fact, he may even be one of the least costly out there.
Does your doctor keep statistics that prove how well he does his job? Does he let you know what your chances are given your tube length, age, and type of tubal ligation done? Do you know his tubal reversal success rates? Do you know the rates of pregnancy after a tubal reversal from this doctor? Are these published and readily available to you? Does your doctor do follow-ups to collect information at six months and at one year intervals after your tubal reversal surgery?
Now take the above things and begin your search. These will help you get a good start on picking out the best possible surgeon from that list of tubal reversal doctors you have drawn up. If you don’t have a list, they should help you realize you do need to do some asking and get information in order to make the best decision for you.
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