(HealthDayNews) -- Tubal ligations are performed about twice as often as vasectomies in this country, statistics show, but the economics and after-effects of each form of sterilization is significantly different.
According to Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey, tubal ligation is three times more expensive than vasectomy, 10 to 37 times more likely to fail, and 12 times more likely to result in complications.
In 1987, there were 976,000 voluntary sterilization procedures performed in the United States, at a cost of $1.8 billion. If there had been an equal number of vasectomies instead, the savings nationally would have been $260 million. And if 80 percent of the procedures performed had been vasectomies, it would have saved $800 million in a single year alone.
