Female Sterilization

[Tabbykat492]

I'm an 18 year old female.  I decided years ago that having a child will conflict with my future and interests, as I am pursuing one of the more dangerous careers in criminology and simply dislike children and have no desire to have one.  I've been sure of this for years, never faltering in this choice.  I began a serious relationship with a man about half a year ago and discovered we were on the same page as far as having kids goes.  While I understand that relationships change, this is not a fact based on what my partner wants.  It's my choice and mine alone, and has never been influenced by other people, traumatic events, or childhood issues.  I've been looking into different methods of birth control, namely laparoscopic sterilization, and would eventually prefer to have this done regardless of whether my partner ever undergoes a vasectomy.  Is there any hope that I could find someone willing to help me with this around a three to five year period?  If I consulted a doctor and a counselor, would there be any chance I could have this done anything soon?  From the sound of it, despite legally being able to do so at 18 and males having a more lenient policy due to the costly and uncertain effectiveness being able to try to reverse this, no doctors would be willing to perform this on any woman under 30.  However, I want to be responsible with my body and do all I can to prevent an unwanted pregnancy because abortion will never be an option for me personally.  Thanks in advance.

[cspearman85]

I am one who can honestly say changed her mind. At 18/19, I swore I'd never have kids. SWORE! I began to have a change of heart around 25. By 28, when I got married, it was all I could think about. It took 10 YEARS for me to realize children were definitely, and irrefutably, something I wanted.

In between these years, I tried different BCs. I tried the patch (annoying), tried the depo shot (great, but the 3 months injection was too infrequent to remember well), and finally settled on the IUD. It was perfect. Easy in, no periods, no worries. Until my husband and I made up our minds to have children and took it out, there was never a thought to it.

Bonus- the Mirena is good for up to 5 years! Then change it out for a new one if you still aren't married and still don't want kids. Then you're good again until you're 30, at whoch point you can make that medical choice. Not too bad to only have to deal with it 2x in 10 yrs. =)

[leviblack]

Yea I say go for the iud

[AnnieBrooke]

Hate to say this because I know it will irritate you, but sometimes women change their mind about this after they do it; this is why doctors won't usually do such a permanent surgery for women under a certain age.  I think my sister had her tubes tied in her 20s, but know it was not in her early 20s.  (Then later [her second marriage] she married a guy with two kids, so she didn't avoid parenthood after all!  lol)  

Anyway, recent biological studies say that the emotional parts of our brains aren't done developing and changing when we are teenagers, we are still coming to complete maturity until at least our early 20s.  This is probably why many doctors just intuitively reject the notion of sterilizing someone at 18.  Stick with an IUD and/or the Pill, and get with a partner who has had a vasectomy.  You'll be OK until you can get the surgery.