Ya know what's weird?

[NoDontDoIt]

I'm 34, biologically female, and i'm done having kids. I've experienced a fair bit of life now, and think this is the real deal, that I know my mind and circumstances, and I would like to be sterilised.

Ha ha ha, says the NHS, no way. How can you possibly make that decision? You've only had one child! You're only 34! We can't possibly.

However, there ARE actually people out there, associated with the NHS, that think it would have been fine to make that decision as a child and sterilise myself with puberty blockers?

I just wanted to voice this somewhere.

@Hayeahnobut

Your wish to be sterilised is a lifestyle choice, so not funded by the NHS. You can go private if you wish.

Dh got a vasectomy through the nhs

Sterilisation is definitely in the nhs remit

So, if the NHS don't fund "lifestyle choice" why the heck do they pour tons of funding into sterilisation/experimental drug treatment of children who live a gender non conforming lifestyle, purely because the parent's lifestyle choice has included a trans child rather than a GNC child... ?

This is a useful context that trans right activists pretend to ignore, or possibly don't know about, because it would mean caring about/being interested in women's health and lives.

I first asked to be sterilised at 14. I've asked roughly every 2 years since. Every time I'm told no because I might change my mind. I'm now 37. I have been asking for 25 years and I'm still treated like I don't know my own mind.

It would be great if someone working in the NHS could link to the official guidance on female sterilisation. I wonder if there is any or if this is the last bastion of paternalism

@Hayeahnobut

Your wish to be sterilised is a lifestyle choice, so not funded by the NHS. You can go private if you wish.

Contraception is free on the NHS.

Vasectomy also free on the NHS.

Why shouldn't tubal ligation be free on the NHS?

EvelynBeatrice Its here;

''Is sterilisation right for me?
Almost any woman can be sterilised, but it should only be considered by women who do not want any more children or do not want children at all.
Once you're sterilised it's very difficult to reverse it, so consider all options before making your decision.
Sterilisation reversal is not usually available on the NHS.
You may be more likely to be accepted for the operation if you're over 30 and have had children.''
www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/female-sterilisation/

My friend is 32 with 3 kids and at least 4 miscarriages. She begged the doctor to sterilise her after number 3 but they wouldn't. It's ridiculous.

There doesn’t appear to be anything in that extract that justifies the outright refusal of female sterilisation which posters here have described. Interesting.

Sometimes wonder if there's some attempt to stop women having totally worry free sex.

@NiceGerbil

My apologies for not separating out NI.

The idea that women should abort (which costs the NHS money) and this will cause them no upset because the baby is unwanted, because it's not right for sterilisation to be paid for by the NHS. Seems like a very peculiar way of looking at it.

To say it's better for women to potentially have multiple abortions in the nhs than be allowed sterilisation seems totally arse about face.

Totally agree. I misunderstood the context of your other post - I actually thought you were saying there was no need for women to be allowed sterilisation because they could abort if they felt strongly that they didn't want a baby

Sorry!

I was referred by a GP for tubal ligation at 35 but cancelled the appointment so not sure whether I would’ve gotten the go ahead at the next stage.
I was referred for BRCA testing at the same time so wasn’t sure if I would need a preventative oophorectomy/hysterectomy within the next few years, so decided to delay one while the other played out, so as not to end up having an extra unnecessary op.

The genetics testing took ages, as at first they couldn’t give me any answers as I had no living relatives left with the cancer.
A couple of years later, DNA tech had moved on enough to get the required info from even tiny, old samples.
Then they had to locate and test my late mum’s blood samples, which took around 9 months.
THEN I had to have several genetic counselling sessions before the BRCA testing went ahead, with lots of discussion about what it would mean to give up my fertility, if it turned out I had the faulty gene too.
By the time I had the test I was over 40, with two children (17 and 6) and a stepchild (12) and even just a test that might lead to a pathway that might result in double mastectomy and hysterectomy was STILL treated as a massive big deal and a huge decision to make, and that was with the aim of cancer risk reduction.

As it happens, the X chromosome I inherited from my mum was the one without the gene fault, and I am BRCA free, but the difference between that experience and what seems to have been happening at GIDS and to young adults at GICs is night and day.

I got my sterilisation op on NHS despite being obese, and still in my 30s. It wasn't a lifestyle choice - remaining fertile was creating serious mental health issues and starting to cause physical symptoms too.

The NHS deals with plenty of things which are or result from 'lifestyle choices' from people who damage themselves while ski-ing or falling down drunk (or falling down drunk while ski-ing) or getting pregnant in a planned way and having a baby. Sterilisation is not cosmetic!

I’ve wondered what the response would be if a woman seeking sterilisation said that she was non-binary genderqueer and has specific gender dysphoria around being fertile and potentially bearing (more) young, therefore required sterilisation to validate their gender identity..... would that be acceptable

I have wondered the exact same thing. And as soon as its practical I will be testing the theory. I assume I go to the drs first? Ask them and see how it goes.

I am sorry for all women who have to go through these hoops to be told that they are not allowed to make choices about their own bodies.

I wonder what the ideal is. Would we want women wanting sterilisation and those wanting puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and masectomies etc to swap positions in terms of when they are allowed to access their preferred treatments?

So women able to make decisions about their own bodies and fertility at any age, as sterilisation is harmless from a health perspective, whereas taking cross-sex hormones and having unnecessary surgery is never healthy or harmless?

Or would we want both groups to have access to a free choice once they were deemed old enough to know their own minds, e.g. over the age of 25 say (I've picked 25 as I've read that that's about the age the brain is fully developed)?

I’d like sex equality in healthcare. Adults of both sexes to be treated equally and with the same respect. I’d like GPs to stop putting all manner of health issues down to mysterious female hormones except of course for actual gynaecological issues when women are told “that’s normal”. Can’t go to work because bleeding through pads and tampons in an hour -normal. (Treatable) Crippling pain - normal. (Treatable) PMS - so severe you can’t function - normal. (Treatable). Mental health issues or bleeding issues from hormonal contraception - just stick with it for another 6 months. No. None of this is acceptable and it doesn’t happen to men.