They do. Doctors will try to convince one to wait and have a few children before they will do anything. This includes people who want to have something done for medical reasons.

I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and have never wanted children. I am now 31 and still do not want them. I have even been hospitalized for complications from the cysts on my ovaries. I will need thousands of dollars of fertility treatments if I ever decided I want children. Which I do not see happening.

Yet my doctors still insist I have at least one or two children before they will do anything. I have asked multiple doctors about this. Many of which admit that leaving me in this condition could be an issue in the future.

I am aware I ranted. Though, I do have a point to make in my own weird way. I do think that people should be able to be sterilized if they wish it. I get it that people change their minds, but those people typically have no medical reason for doing so. Honestly, if there were more methods of birth control available it would be better. There are methods for men that are not available widely for various reasons that are a lot easier and less annoying than condoms or even birth control pills. Though, they would not help with medical issues such as mine.

2fem - That's true... but I think a lot of that is because of access to the internet and the safe practices being available for self research.

Flink - Doctors are stupid. It's sad considering their education. Sometimes you have to bypass the doctor and start bugging specialists. (Sadly work confirmed this when I hear pharmacists complaining about doctors rather often)

I have. Even those who specialize in this have insisted I have one or two kids. I have nephews I am helping to raise. I do not want children. I have tried to convince them.

I had a friend who died due to complications from what I have. They insisted she have a kid first and a cyst on her ovary ruptured.

That is ridiculous... the fact that it could be fatal and they refuse is just plain stupid.

*friendly reminder that specialists are doctors and that the doctors you are probably referring to are primary care physicians*

Flink: we are sisters in misery. I'm a year older than you, right at that special age where the likelihood of certain birth defects begins to skyrocket (granted, my family has a great track record with safely birthing children well into our forties, but I don't tell the doctors that). I too have PCOS and have ended up in hospital for it. I as well do not want children, and haven't since I was four.

Still no joy. I have a uterus, and therefore anything I say about not wanting children is dismissed because biologically female. Not even telling the doctors that I intend to adopt if I change my mind will sway them, because apparently adopted children aren't the saaaame as your own. (This is when the conversation ends because I start seeing red.)

The whole concept of being required to have children is stupid. Socially pressuring someone to have children against their will is essentially harassment. To do this in the medical field knowing their medical condition is utter stupidity on the doctor's part. Disregarding the health of a patient for the sake of a baby they do not want is completely against the point of what a doctor should do.

Have you maybe tried having egg's frozen? If you do that you can tell them you have eggs frozen for if you decide to have kids.

I think insurance should cover it.
The reason I say that is because it's better for insurance to cover birth control than it it is to cover a load of kids that the parent doesn't even want.
It's cheaper for insurance companies.

Also, I think if a woman or man knows for certain they don't ever want children, it's a good idea for them to do permanent birth control. To me, if they don't get that want for children early on, they probably will never want children.

Well while that's the case, doctors talk a lot about how many people have changed their minds in the past. I think if a very large and loop-hole free contract were written up, then doctors would nolonger be liable for any changing of mind after the procedure.

wandering poet: having eggs frozen is expensive and painful, plus I'd have to get a surrogate anyway if I changed my mind because I want most if not all of my reproductive organs removed because of existing health problems and to avoid future cancer scares. Also with my family history I wouldn't want to subject a poor child to those genetics.

So why should I have to waste time and money (that I could, if I changed my mind, put toward giving an already existing child in need a good home) on a procedure I don't want in order to get the one I do?

(Sorry if I sound a little ranty; I'm currently going through this argument with yet another doctor.)

Simply mentioning an alternative. Doctors are extremely annoying in the regard of allowing their personal beliefs to affect how they treat their patients and until those guys retire and new doctors take over, permanent birth control likely wont be very widely accepted.

Refusing treatment though is highly unethical, and I have no idea how that's even legal.

I grew up and live in Kentucky. When I was in school we did learn about safe sex, stds, abstinence, and forms of birth control.

I don't think a hysterectomy should be an option for people under 30 or ones who haven't had children yet. It's major surgery and an unnecessary risk. I would never want insurance to cover this. Insurance should cover all removable forms of BC and that's it.

Dandelina - So you're saying even if not having the surgery will kill the patient they should still not be permitted to get the surgery?

I wonder what the numbers are on how many people actually opt for permanent birth control

Well, the number would be a lot higher if people weren't humiliated and ridiculed if they didn't pop out a couple babies beforehand.

I have known since the age of ten that I do NOT want children. Even after nearly two and a half decades, watching several family members have children of their own, and seeing friends start their own families, the last thing I want to do is have a child. I have been told that I will change my mind at some point, I have been told by several doctors they won't sterilize me because there's no major health issues going on, I have horrible reactions to birth control [first and only time I was on it, I was in the hospital because I was having trouble breathing. Didn't have issues before I was on it, didn't have issues after I got off it]. I just don't want to be tied down to a kid or two for twenty years or more, so a permanent birth control/sterilization would be awesome right about now. I'm all for it.

I actually want a Tubal ligation (tubes tied) and my partner wants a hysterectomy. Both of us are mentally ill, have a lot of genetic medical problems (mine are mostly uterus related as well), and don't feel like we could fit parents. So of course I'd support the use of permanent birth control in ANY circumstance.

@salvete Those are suppose to be the parents choices, but there is a shocking number of doctors that refuse tubal ligations or other permanent birth control to women. I knew a women when I was in middle school, and she was 21, had three kids, and her husband beat her horribly. One day he beat her so much she miscarried their fourth child in the third trimester of her pregnancy.

He wasn't arrested.

The police sided with him and said it was "an accident". She sought the help of a doctor to get her tubed tied.

The doctor said she was "too young" to decide to have the procedure done. She'd "regret it" and "want more kids later". When she explained her situation the doctor (lied) said he didn't know she was married, and he couldn't "legally" do the procedure "without a note from her husband". (that's all untrue by the way)

A friend of mine is in her thirties, already had her ovaries removed because of cysts, is a nurse, and wanted a hysterectomy, because she had all the kids she wanted, and her family has a long history of uterine cancer (the last five generations on her mom's side have developed uterine cancer) the doctor (the same one who had done her original surgery) said she'd "regret it" and "want more kids". When she pointed that out to the doctor that she couldn't have more kids because of no longer have ovaries, he said that she could always do IVF. She called him out on his bull and stormed out of the appointment.

When my grandma was 46 year old she got uterine cancer. It was very severe and was spreading fast. She had four kids (including my uncle who was only months old). The doctor nearly refused her surgery because my grandma's husband didn't "consent to the surgery". My Grandma had to beg to have her cancerous uterus removed. She was bleeding every day, nearly a quarter a pint a day, the week before the surgery. When she got multiple infections because the nurses didn't properly help her, the doctor blamed her, because "If she just would have had chemo 'like everyone else' she wouldn't have gotten the infection".

This is just a fraction of the stories I've heard/been told about people with uteruses being refused permanent birth control.

An example of male permanent birth control?

My dad wanted a vasectomy. The doctor told him to talk to my mom first. My mom wanted another child. My dad was in different. They had another child (me). My dad got his vasectomy. The End.

Men can get vasectomies much easier than women can any form of birth control, let alone permanent birth control.

I think the big reason why male permanent birth control is more permitted is that the procedure only takes about 30 minutes, requires a small incision, and only cuts 2 things.
Additionally, if you've had no children, are young, or dont have a partner, they will treat you like crap.

I'm not sure if that's all it is, though. I've known single guys who had no kids and were only 20 who got vasectomies without any problems. Yet 40+ year old women with above average number of kids can't get, even life-saving, hysterectomies. I think it's partially medical sexism.

Men in their 20s who had no problem? I find that hard to believe. Either they had an open minded doctor, or they went straight to the doctor that did the surgery.

Why wouldn't they be able to get life-saving hysterectomies?

---------- Post added 11-06-2016 at 04:22 PM ----------

In what kind of backwards places did these occur :/