How do periods come about after tubal ligation?
I read on the Internet that when a woman’s fallopian tubes have been tied or cut, for instance during tubal ligation or after an ectopic pregnancy surgery, a woman can still have her menstrual periods.
QDear Doctor,
I read on the Internet that when a woman’s fallopian tubes have been tied or cut, for instance during tubal ligation or after an ectopic pregnancy surgery, a woman can still have her menstrual periods.
How does this come about, when the egg has to pass through the fallopian tube to get to the uterus?
Anne
ADear Anne,
Although menstruation and ovulation are related, the movement of the egg from the ovary into the uterine cavity has no relation with the flow of menstrual blood.
The egg is released usually around mid-cycle and gets propelled through the fallopian tube, where fertilisation occurs normally.
In women with blocked fallopian tubes or those whose tubes were cut during surgery, the egg is released from the ovary at ovulation and absorbed within the abdominal cavity.
Menstruation, on the other hand is from the endometrial cavity (inside uterine lining) and its flow is not affected by tubal blockage or absence.
As such, a woman can have a normal cycle even when she has no fallopian tubes, as long as the ovaries are intact and normal.
The control of menstruation is by hormones, which move through the blood stream and not through the fallopian tubes.
Answered by Dr. Daniel Murokora, a gynaecologist/obstetrician, Mulago Hospital