Abstract:
Some healthcare boards in the UK will approve a request for female sterilisation only if the patient first agrees to undergo a trial period of one year with an intrauterine device (IUD), a form of long-acting reversible contraception. In this article, I argue that this requirement is not justified by appeal to any of the following possible reasons: promotion of informed consent, paternalistic concerns regarding patient regret in later life, and efficiency-savings considerations. I conclude that the IUD requirement (whether based on any or all of these possible reasons) is pointless at best, and punitive at worst. As long as elective vasectomy is offered by the healthcare system, elective female sterilisation should be accessible under similar conditions, without additional barriers to care.