Vasectomy Reversals QLD

[ShandiB]

Hello,

My hubby and I are researching for a good doctor to complete a vasectomy reversal near toowoomba or brisbane.I have a couple of doctors names but was wondering if anyone had used anyone within the QLD region and how much the cost was and if it was successful. My husband vasectomy was approx 6 years ago and he is 31. (we are now going through dr woolcott at Newcastle)

Thanks

Shandi 28
Chris 31
Big Brother 8
Little Brother 6

[MelP]

Hi Shandi,

My husband had a reversal in late January 2008, I'm now in my 27th week of PG. I can recommend our Specialist but unfortunately he is based in NSW. His name is DR. Robert Woolcott. We were just lucky that one of his surgeries is based in Newcastle where we live (the other is in Sydney). His web site is extremely comprehensive and answers all questions, travel questions even the cost factor. Basically we expected to pay around $10000.00 but were pleasantly surprised to find out it was nearer to $7000.00, with the private health fund refund we were barely out of pocket! (Google search his name and you'll see his web site come up).

I can't recommend this Specialist enough, he is extremely skilled and see's patients from all over Australia as well as overseas. He does face to face consultations as well as over the phone consultations for people who live interstate. My husband works for an offshore company and after his op. spoke to a few men he works with, two of which live interstate TAS & QLD and both these guys had reversals by DR Woolcott, mind you we were the first to have a BFP!

My husband and I were to give Dr Woolcott a little challenge as Dave is 41 and had his Vasectomy over 12 years ago, the reversal success rate is very small if you have been done 15 yrs or longer! So the chance of having a good sperm count was small as over time the body naturally considers the sperm as a foreign body and tries to kill it off. Plus there is always the chance that the old scar tissue will affect the outcome. We were lucky that we had no problem with either and six months after his op. we conceived our baby. It was worth the discomfort (which was minimal, but just a little bit more than the Vasectomy), time and money. Hope you find his web site, if not just PM me and I'll send it on to you.

Mel.

[ShandiB]

Hello,

Thank you for the wonderful reply. I have seen Dr Woolcott's website and found it very good with lots of information. I have been in contact with one doctor that is Dr Jamie Reynolds who is based in Brisbane. The only thing is I can not find any success rates when I google it so I am worried as to wether we are finding the right doctors or not. Did it take you long to get in to Dr Woolcott? Our problem is we just sold our business and my husband is going back to work in a month - so we are trying to push him in before that! Wish me luck!

A big congratulations on your BFP! That is truly wonderful and inspiring!

Thanks

Shandi

[damosflee]

Hi my docotr reffered me to a specialist who has an ofice in the sunnybank private medical suites, he has years of experience and is very friendly, i just need to save some more money before i go ahead, to save costs he uses a public hospital theatre.

he is about $3500

due to changes in governement initiatives medicare doesn not allocate a number for reversals, and will not consider helping towards these costs, private health funds only pay on items that have a medicare number, so it is not a refund, but given your chances after initial consultation it may be allot cheaper than IVF.

[ShandiB]

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know I contract Dr Woolcott office and they were able to get hubby booked in within 10 days of calling! So he is going in to be reversed on MONDAY! I am truly excited and hope it works well. He has had his phone consultation and the doctor believes he is a good candidate as he had his reversal 6 years ago but he is only 31. The only worry is that he has haemcromotosis which mean he gets way to much iron which can lower his sperm count. But he has been maintaining normal iron levels for the past six months so this should help. I have also started him on zinc as it states it will assist in producing healthy sperm.

Thanks for supplying me with the information on that doctor. We are really excited for our long weekend this weekend!

Thanks

[MelP]

Hi Shandi,

Fantastic news! I'm really excited for you both and glad I could help. Will you be going to Sydney or Newcastle?

It won't be long now until you will have a BFP, a little pampering of hubby over the next couple of weeks will be all worth it for the end result.
To tell you the truth it is amazing how affordable the whole procedure ends up being with the refunds at the end, out of pocket expenses end up being close to what damosflee wrote. I wonder why more people don't consider it, maybe it's the idea of going under the knife again!

If you get a chance you can mention our names (David and Melanie Phillipson) to Dr Woolcott, he may remember us!

Good luck to both you and hubby for the weekend....... you are in good hands!

Mel.

[ShandiB]

Hello,

He was able to get us into newcastle earlier so we are going there. The hospital is a little bit extra but it got us in 2 weeks earlier. The money is definately worth the try - how do you know it won't work if you don't atleast try.

I will be sure to mention your name when we see the doctor and hopefully soon I will be sharing my BFP with everyone.

I will make sure I pamper my husband well- it will be hard for him as he is so use to working a lot - but he understands it is important for him to rest to make sure he gets the best possible results and to stop scarring.

In response to the vasectomy doctors in qld - we did find plenty but the waiting periods are anywhere from 2-6 months and I feel that the operation is in good hands going through dr woolcott as he does them alot. I also had one surgeon turn my off by saying "I will give it a go" when asked if he did vasectomy reversals.

Thanks for your wishes.

Hopefully I will reply with good news soon!

Bye for now

[gurdie]

Hi my docotr reffered me to a specialist who has an ofice in the sunnybank private medical suites, he has years of experience and is very friendly, i just need to save some more money before i go ahead, to save costs he uses a public hospital theatre.

he is about $3500

I was wondering if i can have the details for this specialist please. DH had a vasectomy about 2 years ago now, worst mistake ever, and now we have just started looking around to get it reversed.

[jotana]

Hi All,
I am new to this forum, my husband had his VR done in Feb this year with Dr Lekich his VR was done only 15 months after his V. He had his first sperm test done a few weeks ago and sadly it came back with no sperm in there at all I am very disappointed about it but the doctor said not to worry about it yet as sperm can take a while to return. Now I am hoping his next test in six weeks time will have some in there or I don't know what I will do.

[ShandiB]

Hello,

I am sorry to hear that your reversal did not work at this stage - we hope you get some sperm with the next test - we did have that dr Lekich on our short list but we decided to go with Dr Woolcott and I am so very glad we did. My hubby got his sperm results back and he had an amazing amount of sperm 127 million of them - the only thing is only 13% were going in the right direction and doing what they should be doing - they also tested him for sperm antibodies as they believed he would have them as the vasectomy was originally done 6 years earlier - but we never went back to the doctors for the results as we just found out we are pregnant! Our baby will be due nearly a year to the day my husband had the reversal. We are very excited. I wish you guys all the best of luck with your reversals.

[jotana]

ShandiB- Thanks for the reply I am hearing a lot of good results from Dr Woolcott we were going to use him but it worked out cheaper (out of pocket after medicare) for us to go with Dr Lekich. Dr Lekich sells himself well and told us we had about 95% chance of success so I am trying to believe him and wait to see what our next test shows. I spoke to him the other day and told him I don't understand how some men can get sperm straight away and that my DH has none even though his V was only 15 months before his VR and he just said every man is different.
Enjoy your baby and hopefully I will have some good news soon too.

[Nat82]

Hi, I just came across this thread.

MelP - my DH had a vasectomy about 12 years ago too - so we're a bit worried about the chances of success. Does the presence of sperm antibodies effect the result? We had had two cycles of ivf and one frozen embryo transfer (bt for that on 20/7), but if that doesn't work we are considering changing clinics or doing a reversal.

[MelP]

Hi mum2bXX,

It didn't in our case. I think there would always be a small chance of sperm antibodies for anyone who has had the snip. It is a risk but it isn't the dominant risk. Most reversals seem to have a positive outcome with conception happening within the two year period of the reversal procedure. The main risk would be the specialists inexperience (always consider how many procedures they have done and their success rate). And the other risk is scar tissue. But with an experienced surgeon that problem is greatly reduced.

Dr.Woolcott is an expert at what he does, so good in fact that he can tell other surgeons work once he opens someone up just by looking at the way they have worked the original vasectomy.

We chose a reversal as our first choice over IVF as the success rate is greater and now we have a beautiful baby boy to prove that success.(hubby is now now 42 and I'm now 39, although both our B'days were after bub was born). We went through the whole ordeal with the thought if the reversal didn't work we still had the choice of IVF as our last resort. I believe your chances of conceiving through IVF is a lower percentage than a reversal and then trying to conceive naturally. From memory if a vasectomy has been done for 15 years or more the percentage of success is greatly reduced. We were made to feel we would have a positive outcome and we did.

Dr. Woolcott's website is extremely comprehensive. I'm sure you would find the right answers there. There is also a video of a reversal procedure you can watch, it is just amazing! They also break down the whole cost of service and how you can claim through private health funds and medicare. They also specialize in conceiving through IVF. So maybe there would be some more useful information about that on the website as well.

I wouldn't be too worried about the procedure, it is well worth the trouble and although it does mean hubby will have to go under the knife again, I think it is still less invasive that the whole trauma of IVF. All I had to do was start charting my cycle and wait until he had recovered enough before I got jiggy with him. We were very active even before the official sperm count which I think was at the 6 or 8 week mark (I could be wrong with those dates).

It is a hard choice to make and I wish you both all the success in the world, for us reversal has been a dream come true and I'm so happy we went down that path. Good luck.

Mel.

[Nat82]

Thanks for the info MelP. I will definately look into it further. I am just really, really impatient, so I'm not sure if I can wait up to two years Also we are moving to Canberra soon, so we might have to get in soon if we do decide to do it.

I agree that ivf is very invasive, but I don't know if I could handle the waiting each month... At least ivf is very closely monitored. Hmmm.. lots to think about!

Anyway congratulation to you and your DH..

[MelP]

Hi mum2BXX,

I should have clarified the 2 years waiting part. It can take up to 18months for sperm production to reach what is considered normal count. This doesn't mean you can't fall pregnant with a lower count, as with myself. As our GP said to us, "it only takes one"! David and I conceived Jasper 6 months after he had his reversal, in reality it was only three months or three cycles as he works away, one month on and one month off. So we only tried three times and the third time I fell pregnant.

Also consider the dates with ShandiB, she fell PG at the 5-6 month mark after her hubbies reversal as well. The waiting time wasn't hard and we found trying to conceive fun, relaxing and healthy. Waiting for those two pink lines is much harder, but then I didn't have to wait long!

Hope this clarifies what I first wrote.

Mel.

[briggsy50]

Hi,

my husband and I are currently considering a VR. Just wondering whether anyone here has used the metro centre - Dr Lekich and if so, what there opinion/experience has been so far. And i was so happy to read about the success some couples have had with Dr Woolcott. Could someone please commment on whether the procedure was straightforward from the start and whether the doctors had any difficulties locating the vas etc. Would really appreciate some feedback... please

Thanks

[jotana]

briggsy50
My DH had his VR done by Dr Lekich in Feb this year we found them really professional and was only out of pocket about $2200. He does a ultra sound on the first consult and looks at the vas so he knows what he is in for before the op. DH had his first SA done 4 months after his VR and sadly it came back nil/zero sperm. Dr Lekich said it would of been good to see some but it is not unusual and can take 18 months to return, He will be having his next test done in a few weeks so hoping to have some by then.
If you need any more info just let me know.

[briggsy50]

Jotana - thanks so much for your response. I am actually having a hard time choosing the most skilled surgeon. It appears that Dr Woolcott and Dr Lekich are the 2 choices. My cvoncern is that not all VR are the same as it depends on how the original vasectomy was done. Some vasectomies are done high up in the groin and requires quite a bit of skill. Dr Wolcott talks about this issue on his website but Dr lekich does not so it;s kind of hard to tell which one is better equipped to deal with difficult VR where the vas is blocked or the vasectomy has been done higher up. Could you provide further info on what happened at the intial consultation and whether the procedure was straigh forward in your case? Also, how many doctors were present at the theatre on the day of the VR and how confident did you feel after speaking with your doctor? Thanks so much...