European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Tubal sterilization is an effective method of contraception that can be done or accepted at any point of time unrelated to pregnancy or the postpartum period. Majority of the women have little or incomplete knowledge about various methods of family planning which adds up to the barriers that prevent women from accepting tubal ligation like religious reasons, cultural reasons, interference by family, fear of worsening of health, fear of loss of fertility and many more.
Aim: To assess barriers in acceptance of permanent female sterilization procedures in women.
Methodology: After obtaining approval from the Hospital Ethical Committee, a cross sectional study was conducted on 100 couples who had at least 1 living children after taking written informed consent to elicit reasons as to why patients did not opt for tubal ligation.
Results: Among the reasons for not accepting permanent sterilization as their mode of contraception, maximum couples (22%) were willing to opt for temporary method of contraception over permanent method while 21% couples, out of which 18% were primiparas confessed that they wanted one or more male or female child.
Conclusion: With a lot of National programs being run by the Government of India and incentives being given at the grass root level of healthcare system for female sterilization to be successful we need to address the issues like dominance of couples in decision making, gender equality, confidence in health sector, awareness of abortion leading health risks, better techniques for improving reversal rates and reduction in failure rates