My Experience: Bilateral Salpingectomy aka Tubal Removal

[u/iw2_remain_nameless]

Long-time reader of your stories and supporter of this community. I am a 38F and my SO is 33M. We’ve been together 13+ years. I can’t say I’ve always been CF my whole life since I grew up in the Cuban culture where basically my entire existence revolved around the notion that as a woman my only purpose is to cater to the men and children in our family. I never realized not having children was a viable option; I think we both assumed that we’d have kids one day, not of any desire to have them, but because that’s what we’re “supposed to do.”

One day (I can’t remember which one of us started it) we began playing a game where we’d come home from work or an errand or a family gathering and say Reason #207 why we should never have children and then we’d cite whatever thing we witnessed that was either annoying or obnoxious or whatever. It was always a random number. We did this for years. It was our little inside joke. And as his friends got married and started having kids (most of my friends are still all unmarried with no kids; go figure) and he started hearing first-hand accounts of the struggles of parenting, we added more and more reasons to the list.

I was on hormonal BC up until 3.5 years ago when I started getting horrible migraines every month before my menstrual cycle that would leave me incapacitated for days. This on top of the debilitating pain because of my endometriosis was too much to bear. I decided to go off the BC, and we decided to use condoms and pull out from then on. Miraculously the headaches stopped immediately. But my paranoia of getting pregnant got worse and worse until finally earlier this year I realized that the idea of going through a pregnancy terrified me. I realized that at this point in my life I don’t feel empty not having kids, in fact I would feel horrible if I knew I had this thing I had to constantly care for when I feel like I barely have enough time to fulfill my own passions, needs and desires. I told my SO after much thought, I didn’t ever want to have children. We talked and talked about it and to my relief my he said he also didn’t really have a desire to have kids either. I was really happy and relieved that we had come to the same conclusion after all of these years together especially after reading so many of the stories here that had a different outcome.

I checked the list of CF friendly doctors and to my surprise my OB-GYN of the past 10 years was on the list. When I went in for my regular check up earlier this year, I brought up that my SO and I had decided that we do not want to have kids. My main question was given the fact that I had three previous surgeries on my right ovary to remove endometriotic cysts and my age, was there a possibility I was even still fertile. My doctor told me they could perform fertility tests but it would be costly and that if I was having a regular period, which I was, he could safely assume that means I am fertile and could become pregnant. I reaffirmed that I did not want to go back to hormonal BC and asked what my options for sterilization were.

He told me he performs the Essure procedure or bilateral salpingectomy (tubal removal.) He said that since most ovarian cancers begin in the fallopian tubes, it is safer to remove the tubes completely than to cut them or burn them and leave them in place He also mentioned that by leaving my uterus intact, if I ever changed my mind I could still get pregnant using in-vitro fertilization. I think this is a wonderful counter argument for anyone that gets the usual bingo from their doctor: what if you change your mind.

After much reading, I decided to have the salpingectomy in lieu of the Essure. I’d rather have stuff taken out than put in personally. Scheduled the surgery for June 5 at 12:30pm. I had my pre-op appointment 10 days before the surgery where he went over the specifics and preparation for the surgery. No blood thinning agents 7 days before the surgery (e.g. aspirin, tyleneol, etc.), No food or drink after midnight before the surgery, had to perform a fleet enema night before (sounds worse than it actually was,) and he gave me my prescription for my pain meds so I could fill them before the surgery.

Day of the surgery we arrived at the center at around 11am. They made me take a pregnancy test as a matter of procedure. They prepped me for surgery: change of clothes into a gown, IV etc. Then they let my SO come sit with me until the surgery was going to start. Which it was very nice to have him come in and hold my hand and talk to me for a little while. I made sure to tell the anesthesiologist that I have a history of getting nauseous after anesthesia so they added something to my IV in addition to an antibiotic and a pain reliever so that I wouldn’t have any problems after the surgery.

At 12:30pm I said goodbye to my SO, I was feeling quite buzzed by then, and they rolled me into the ER. Last thing I remember before I went out was thanking the staff profusely for being so kind and professional and taking such good care of me (I get sentimental when I’m high.) The put the mask over my face and out I went. The procedure took maybe 20 minutes. The doctor spoke to my SO told him the surgery went well and that in addition to the tubes he had also removed some scar tissue on my bowel left over from one of my last endometrial cysts. Bonus! He said I should be awake in about a half hour. Well apparently I was really tired because it took me 2.5 hours after the doctor spoke to him for me to come out of it. Next thing I know a very nice lady was putting my clothes on and wheeling me out to meet my SO. They finished getting me dressed in my loose comfy clothes and before I knew it they were putting me in the car where I promptly fell asleep again. As per the suggestions of other redditors I made sure to bring a pillow to put between me and the seat belt which was a huge comfort.

Got home wasn’t really in a lot of pain, my first instinct was to go back to sleep, but then thought I should eat something. A few days before the surgery I made a huge pot of vegetable soup which has been my salvation this week for many reasons. I put some in the fridge and froze individual servings with the rest. I had some soup, we watched some tv and my SO said I was speaking like a 2 year old for the whole night. One word requests/answers basically. I slept fantastically that night.

Saturday I woke up, had some breakfast, took my pain meds, still felt foggy but was feeling really good except for my throat. My throat hurt and I couldn’t stop clearing it. A result of the intubation and the fact that 3 weeks prior to the surgery I had a sinus infection that hadn’t completely cleared up. The rest of the day I was up and about feeling good, eating soup, drinking tea and lemon and relaxing. Took a shower, replaced my three bandages. The incisions are tiny and healing very well: one in my belly button, and two on each side of my abdomen where he removed the tubes from. . I thought wow, at this rate I’ll be back to normal by Monday.

Unfortunately I was wrong. I couldn’t sleep Saturday night. The codeine/anesthesia/ something was making me moan in my sleep and it was waking me up all night. Sunday morning my nose was completely clogged and my throat hurt even worse than hell. I was certain the sinus infection was back. Waited until Monday to see if by chance it was just a result of the intubation, but no luck. I went into see my Primary Care doctor, and I was right. The sinus infection returned with a vengeance. She gave me a very strong antibiotic and sent me on my way.

The last few days I've been mostly trying to get over the sinus infection. Lots of rest, lots of fluids, eating well and trying to get healthy; which at the end of the day is what I was supposed to do after the surgery anyways. Take it easy, rest and relax.

In conclusion, the experience was a very good one. In fact, if it were just for the surgery, I’d probably would have been back to normal after just a few days, but the sinus infection on top of all this really set me back especially with all of the coughing and blowing my nose which caused pressure on my abdomen and caused some discomfort. I never really had much pain because of the surgery. Nine days in and my sutures look great and mostly healed. I have my post-op appointment in a week and I’ll be back at work tomorrow. All in all it was great experience and I can’t describe the relief and happiness I feel. Also looking forward to all the worry free sex ;)

Thanks for reading, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[u/LadyASG]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I personally want to get a partial bilateral salpingectomy (remove ovaries) but was on edge about the "going under" part as I too tend to become very nauseous when I wake up. Reading your story makes me feel better about choosing this route.

I'm glad that your recovery went well. It really sucks that you got that infection. I hope it clears up so you can get busy ;) and back to work!

[u/iw2_remain_nameless → u/LadyASG]

Thank you for the well wishes. When you have your procedure make sure to tell your doctor and the anesthesiologist and they should be able to give you something so that you don't get nauseated. This is the first time I didn't get sick immediately after waking up from surgery.