Customer Reviews

Childfree and Sterilized

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It was such a relief to read this book, to know that other women have experienced and share in the frustration and outright discrimination I've experienced. I have never wanted, and do not want, children. As I get older (and as this mythical "clock" is supposed to start ticking), the idea of having children in my home seems less and less appealing.

Yet, despite the fact that my insurance covers sterilization, I have yet to find a doctor willing to do it because I don't have children and will supposedly change my mind. Let me get this straight: I could think about my future with enough surety to get a Ph.D., buy a car, manage not to go into debt by working through grad school, make life-or-death medical decisions for my father, and - if I wanted - could adopt a child from just about anywhere on earth, but I am somehow not capable of making a choice about my own sterilization? Yet, if I were merely 16 and showed up at a doctor's office wanting to have a baby, I doubt any doctor would tell me to have an abortion because I might not know my own mind and may want a different life in the future.

I cannot express how refreshing it was to read similar - and worse! - stories from other women. This is an excellent book; it is well researched and clear, and focuses not just on personal stories but on bias in medical treatment. It also debunks some myths about women who very much want to be sterilized - as in, they actually don't regret it. Terrific read. My copy is dog-eared, and has been borrowed by many friends of mine who have been in the same position, and had no idea such a book existed.

This book was written as a collection of the experiences of a group of women seeking sterilization services in the UK. One has to take into account that there may be some additional resistance to the sterilization of British women as a result of the national health service system of managed care. That said, in my experience the UK population seems to be more comfortable with the notion of voluntary nulliparity and sterilization than that of the US.

US guidelines for voluntary sterilization are based on the "rule of 120". This means that a woman's age is multiplied by a factor of 2 and then by the number of children she has. If that result equals 120 then the woman is considered an acceptable candidate for sterilization. This means that a 30 year old with 2 kids would meet less resistance to a request to be sterilized while a person with no children would never be eligible during her childbearing years.

This book was an important part of the creation of my personal statement in the defense of my decision to follow the lead of the women in this book. In fact, in the end I was required to follow the lead of the women in this book literally. At 29 I successfully visited London's Marie Stopes Clinic and encountered [very gratefully] none of the resistance or disrespect that so often surrounds this process. Such experiences are detailed in the outrage expressed by many of those who tell their stories here. "Childfree and Sterilized" was a central resource in my understanding and planning for the issues surrounding this choice.

This book was not at all what I thought it would be. The whole study was done in the UK which is widely different than the US. I honestly could not even finish the book. I was expecting a book that went into the reason why women choose to be child-free more than what they went through to be sterilized. I was not happy at all.