Tubal Ligation - Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages

Tubal ligation is an abdominal surgery. One study found that postoperative complications from tubal ligation are more likely than with vasectomy and more costly. However, this study did not consider post-vasectomy pain syndrome. In industrialized nations, mortality is 4 per 100,000 tubal ligations, versus 0.1 per 100,000 vasectomies.

Tubal ligation has a larger initial cost than other contraceptive methods. It may take more than a decade of use for tubal ligation to become as cost-effective as other highly effective, long term methods like IUD or implant. Continued method costs or costs from unintended pregnancies make many other methods as or more costly than tubal ligation if used for several years. The cost of tubal ligation is reduced if it is performed during a cesarean section, since the tubes are already exposed during the laparotomy.

Tubal ligation may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, with some studies estimating the relative risk at 0.66 for epithelial types, 0.40 for endometrioid types and 0.73 for serous types.