It has been a while since I have posted anything. My husband and I want to have a baby. I went to a fertility doctor and he did a hsg test. It showed that my tubes are blocked due to scar tissue. The pain was so bad that it made me sick to my stomach. Has anyone ever had this problem? He mentioned I could do IVF, but my ins. will not pay and he said it cost about 11K. I asked him what about having surgery? He talked like he didn't want to do it b/c there's a chance of poking a hole in my j-pouch. He said if that happens I would have to go back to the bag while everything healed and then have the 2nd surgery to be reconnected. I was very upset when I found all of this out. My husband and I go back to see him this Tuesday. I hope we get better news, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. If there's a website that I could find out more info, please let me know or if anyone has any advice.

I'm thinking about getting a second opinion too.

HI Shelly,
Well I have the same problem (although only one tube). I am going in to surgey tomorrow to have it removed. I am surprised by the advice you have had.

My surgeon is very confident he will not damage the pouch. My obstetrician advised me that I was better off to have them removed, as blocked tubes leak cytokine chemicals into the uterous which make a hostile environment for any embryo.

I would definatley get a second opinion. I have chosen to get one of the best surgeons to do it to minimise the risk - he has also seen jpouches before and has ready access to a bowel surgeon if needed.

It is quite common for us pouchers to have this problem it seems - and if you search this site on 'tube' you will find other recent discussions too. Some girls have had both tubes removed, and are now going with ivf.

Don't fret, it is not the end. THere are still other options.

Cheers

Hi Saff,
Thanks for your reply. It makes me feel better to know that your surgeon is going to do the surgery. I talked to my colorectal surgeon a wk ago and he told me to get a second opinion. I'm going to call my ins. co. and see if they pay for one. I'm also going to see if they would pay for the surgery.

I didn't know by having blocked tubes that cytokine would leak into the uterus. I will search tube on here and read more of peoples stories. I searched blocked fallopian tubes and didn't find anything.

Let me know how your surgery goes. Good luck!

Actually, not all blocked tubes have the chemicles Saff describes, only few do. And most doctors will not go in and remove tubes if there is significant scar tissue. It can be a mess and there is the fear of damaging the pouch, as well as anything else. If you do do IVF, the blocked tubes will just be bypassed and whether they are there or not will not make a difference.
I have one fully blocked, on partially. I had a miscarriage a year and a half ago and we have been unsuccessful in getting pregnant on our own since and are now doing IVF to the tune of a zillion dollars.
I just think you should know--whatever road you choose to go down--that removing tubes is not necessarily the answer.
I remember receiving the same news and being so devastated. I'm really sorry--but don't despair, there are a lot of options out there...

I wanted to let everyone know what my dr told us today. He started talking about doing IVF. I told him we didn't want to do that. He said the only thing left is surgery. He said he would do laparoscopic surgery to remove the scar tissue. He said that he would talk to my colorectal surgeon to see if he would be in there too. He said that tubes with scar tissue are either have moderate or severe damage. He said there would be a 35% chance of getting pregnant if they are moderately damaged. He may have to open me up if he couldn't get all of the scar tissue. I asked him how many of these surgeries had he performed and he said alot.

HI Shelly. I just got back from hospital. I was very lucky indeed and my surgeon managed to retain the tube they thought was blocked. THe whole pelvic areas was a mess with adhesions and scar tissue, and pseudo cysts - one approx. 7cm. So he cut a lot of that out and freed the tube. They then tested both tubes by flushing them with dye and were satisfied that both were working fine - much to their amazement. There was no damage to my jpouch. It was a laparascopic procedure that took 2 hours. I feel a bit sore and swollen now but not too bad.

He is of the opinion that I should have much better chances of falling pregnant naturally now - and thinks I should set myself a 12mth time limit before IVF.

Goodluck with your decision.

Hi Saff,

I'm glad that everything went well. I called my fertility dr's office today and talked to his nurse. She said she would tell my dr. and they would contact my colorectal surgeon. She would call me back after they coordinate everything she would let me know. I have some people that disagree with my decision, but I want to know.

I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers as you continue to heal!

Hi,
I had an hsg test done back in 2005, my tubes are all clear, so I thought it would not be to hard to get pg. Well I had to finally go to a RE and he did lap on me but said he could not do it because of all of the scar tissue. Acording to th RE both of my ovaries are blocked with scar tissue that's why I can't get pg. So I went to my colorectal surgeon to see what he thought about the situation. He told me that the only way to remove the scar tissue he would have to completely open me up again, and that there was no gaurantee it would work. So I have to do IVF, I will be doing my second cycle in about 4 months.

Shellnut- I can get a grant through my RE for IVF because my insurance does not cover it and IVF is my only chance of having a baby. They based it on your income, you should talk to your fertility doc to see if they do anything like that if IVF is the only option.

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for your reply. My husband doesn't want to do IVF b/c he said they take out extra embryos knowing they will not survive. So, I don't want to get into a fight over it. Thanks for letting me know about the grant. I maybe able to pass the information along to someone else.

they're not embryos until they're fertilized; they're just eggs. And if they're not used it's because they were never viable in the first place.

Actually, there are other reasons embryos may remain after a successful IVF. Depending on how many eggs they get, and on how many fertilize, you decide with your dr how many to transfer back to the uterus. Most clinics now recommend transferring no more than 3 and many clinics recommend 1 or 2.

My first cycle produced 20 eggs, 8 of which fertilized and 3 of which survived to 3 days (the other 5 embryos were not viable). We transferred 2 embryos and froze one. We got pregnant with a single, Alex, who was born in Jan 2006. In May 2007 we tried transferring the frozen embryo but I miscarried.

In Nov 2007 we did another complete cycle - again 20 eggs. 10 fertilized, 4 survived to day 5 (we went longer this time because of the miscarriage). We transferred one (I did not want twins with a 2 1/2 year old!) and I'm scheduled for a c-section July 16th. But, we have 3 embryos left and are not planning any more children. We have to decide what to do with the embryos and have three choices: donate them to another couple, donate them to research or have them destroyed. It is a difficult decision and my husband and I have differing opinions, but we are doing our research and we'll decide together on something we can both live with.

So, clinics really have no control over how many embryos get created. What they can somewhat control through the medications is how many eggs you produce. If you go to a responsible clinic, they should be aiming for no more than 20 or so becuase otherwise you may get ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome, and that is particularly and issue for us as a major consequence is dehydration.