Shalena came to us from the Dominican Republic to have her tubes untied. She is the single mother of three children and is in a close relationship with a new partner. Shalena is a labor and delivery nurse and a good friend of mine.
I have personally witnessed her journey of considering tubal reversal, having her tubes untied, and having a pregnancy after her tubes have been reversed. Below is her story of tubal reversal and our friendship.
Reversing Tied Tubes and Regret
I first met Shalena when she was a nurse on labor and delivery at the hospital where I was an attending Ob/Gyn. Together we worked long shifts in the labor and delivery units. During this time, we gradually became friends. Shalena has a very lively and energetic personality. She was fun to be around and even more fun to talk with. I can remember several long nights I could only survive because of lots of coffee and Shalena’s entertaining, personal stories!
This is when I first began to hear about her tubal ligation, her regret about having her tubes tied, and her desire to have a tubal reversal at A Personal Choice.
Tubal Ligation and Postpartum Depression
Shalena has three childre; ages 15, 9, and 6. She was in a difficult relationship and she was essentially a single parent. While studying to become a nurse and when she was 26 years old, she had her third child. After the birth of this child, she had her tubes tied (ligation and resection tubal ligation).
This was a difficult time for her. She now realizes she was under tremendous stress when she made the decision to have her tubes tied. When she made the decision to have a tubal ligation Shalena feels she was experiencing postpartum depression.
Life After Tubal Ligation
After the birth of her child, Shalena was able to finish school and become a registered nurse. She worked as a labor nurse and this is when I first met her. We would occasionally have discussions about her tubal ligation, her desire to have another child, and her consideration of tubal reversal. I listened some and laughed a lot. Not because I thought she was crazy for wanting a tubal reversal, but only because she was just so funny!
Shalena was able to successfully raise her three children as a single, hard working parent and provide for them. She is a very dynamic person. She lives life fast and makes quick decisions. She has a lot of responsibilities in caring for herself, her children, and her extended family.
In many ways she was an inspiration for me. One day she told me – right out of the blue- she was going to Costa Rica with her children to learn Spanish and she did. She made the decision, made a plan, left her job for two months, and did it. Just like that.
I remember thinking…’Here I am with a good job, three kids, and a wife and I don’t have half the fun and adventure Shalena does.’
I gradually grew to respect and admire Shalena. She had an extremely tough time as a young single mother, but she made the best of it.
Eventually life took us in different directions. Shalena took a job as a travel nurse and worked part-time in New York City and lived part-time in the Dominican Republic. In the Dominican Republic, Shalena met her new man but she has been very secretive about this person! I subsequently left my practice as a hospital ob/gyn and, very coincidentally, started working with Dr. Berger as a tubal reversal surgeon.
Shalena swears she is the reason I started doing tubal reversal surgery (not the reason) and used her contrived fact to try and get a discounted reversal surgery (did not happen)!
Tubal Reversal or IVF?
Shalena was working as a travel nurse in a New York hospital. I did not hear from Shalena for sometime until I received an email from her. She emailed me to talk about her options for pregnancy. She had been talking with the reproductive specialists at her hospital. She was being advised to have IVF. She was told the IVF risks were lower than with tubal reversal and the chances of becoming pregnant were higher with IVF than with tubal reversal surgery.
IVF was explained to her as the quickest and best chance for her pregnancy success. What was once an easy decision for her (tubal reversal) was now becoming harder to make.
Tubal Reversal in America: Successful and Affordable
Part two of this story has been published and is: Tubal Reversal in America: International Tubal Reversal Center.
