These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Should surgical sterilization be considered reversible?
    Journal: Contracept Technol Update; 1989 Jun; 10(6):86-8. PubMed ID: 12342315.
    Abstract:
    The process of sterilization reversal is becoming a much more popular and widely publicized procedure; however, doctors fear that misconceptions concerning the reversibility of sterilization are mounting. Actual success rates for a vasectomy or tubal ligation reversal are much lower than the rates that are reported by the media. The definition of reversal success is discussed with one doctor asserting that a reversal operation should be considered successful when a live birth occurs. As well, success rates don't consider those turned away for reversal surgery at the screening stage. Some 80% of reversal surgery applicants may be turned away for any number of reasons. Guidelines for the medical staff counseling a client interested in sterilization are published by the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception and include the characteristics of candidates who are more likely to have successful reversal surgery such as: women who are in their late 30s or younger and men who are in their late 40s or younger; people who are healthy; those with fertile sexual partners and women with regular ovulation; men who are seeking reversal within 10 years of the sterilization and women who have damage only to small areas of the fallopian tubes. It is also recognized that sterilization through electrocoagulation for women is less likely to be reversible than through the rings and ligature processes; the method most able to be reversed is clips. Medical staff counseling individuals seeking voluntary sterilization need to stress the permanency of the process without giving false prospects for reversal surgery.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]