Sept. 16, 2024 – Women who rely on getting their tubes tied as their primary method of birth control may face a higher risk of unplanned pregnancy than expected. Between 3% and 5% of women who get the procedure later have unintended pregnancies.
That’s according to newly published findings from a team led by University of California researchers, who said that more effective alternatives include birth control placed in the arm or uterus, which offers longer-lasting protection against pregnancy.
“This study shows that tubal surgery cannot be considered the best way to prevent pregnancy,” lead researcher Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, MD, MS, general internal medicine division chief at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, said in a news release. “People using a contraceptive arm implant or an IUD are less likely to become pregnant than those who have their tubes tied.”
Often considered permanent forms of birth control, the procedures, collectively known as tubal sterilization, are called tubal ligation and salpingectomy. Tubal ligation surgery involves blocking the fallopian tubes so eggs cannot travel from the ovaries to the uterus. Salpingectomy involves removal of the fallopian tubes.
Schwarz wrote on the social media platform LinkedIn that more research may soon be funded to see how well salpingectomy works.
About 600,000 women annually get tubal sterilization procedures, and they may be advised that the chance of getting pregnant is around 1% within the first year of the surgery.
This latest study found a much higher failure rate, compared to the previous figures that were largely based on data from 40 years ago. The researchers analyzed survey responses collected between 2002 and 2015 from 4,184 women who reported having had tubal sterilization. Within the first year of the procedure, 3% of the women who were sterilized between 2013 and 2015 said they became pregnant.
Younger women were the most likely to become pregnant after tubal sterilization. Some people choose tubal sterilization over other contraception methods because of convenience or cost. Arm implants and IUDs are more than 99% effective.
“When choosing what birth control will work best for them, people consider many different things, including safety, convenience, and how fast they can start to use the method,” Schwarz said. “For people who have chosen a ‘permanent’ method, learning they got pregnant can be very distressing. It turns out this is, unfortunately, a fairly common experience.”
