The topic of female sterilization is considered taboo. Considering how forced sterilization, or Eugenic Sterilization, has been a problem since the 1900's, I think it makes sense. I can understand how someone who's family or friend was forcefully sterilized can make people talking about sterilization upsetting.
I don't think anyone should be sterilized without their consent, but I also don't see why this means I can't be sterilized with my permission.
I have wanted to get a procedure done since I was fifteen. At that age, I decided that I would get my fallopian tubes tied, what connects your ovaries to your uterus, at eighteen. When I became eighteen I realized I didn't have the money to get it done; it can cost up to 6,000 dollars. Or I would have to go through my insurance, which would require telling my parents and explain why I want it done. Which at the time I didn't want to do.
The thought of being pregnant, even for just a day, has me so sick to my stomach I feel like I can't do anything else. The nightmare of that happening has ranged from getting raped to having sex with my partner, then finding out that I'm pregnant. I can't do it anymore. I want the assurance that it won't ever happen. That can only happen if I get sterilized.
When I started dating my current partner, the first serious relationship I ever had, my mother insisted we go to a gynecologist. Which, Fair. Despite all of my desire to get things done, I had no actual connection to a doctor who could help. Maybe this was my chance, a real chance, to get started on a desire I kept hidden for close to five years.
However, it wasn't meant to be as this doctor had no desire to help me achieve what I wanted. The first question she asked was what about my husband. What if he wanted to have children. My body belonged to a man I never met before it would ever belong to me.
This has been a trend throughout a majority of female health issues.
The Huffington Post released an article, linked below, called "Meet The 20-Somethings Who Want To Be Sterilized" in 2014, the woman whose story we flow in the article is Bri Seeley. Seeley wanted to get sterilized, she knew by the time she was 24, she spent six years trying to get some doctor to do their job before she was finally considered a viable candidate at 31. The problem of sexist doctors seems to be still very alive in the twenty-first century.
I can't wait till I am 31. I won't wait until I am 31.
I know that there are a lot of people who think this is a phase or something I will regret in thirty years, honestly if that ends up being the case, I don't know, I'll let you say I told you so and I'll give you a Snickers. But I should be supported in my decisions. Especially by the Medical professionals, I am supposed to trust, if they won't believe me in this what else are they not going to believe me in.
History is rampant with doctors not believing women when they express things about their health. Women, specifically Black women, are less likely to be given pain medication because doctors think they are faking. When the pill was invented, the nastier side effects weren't disclosed to the public, not for a long while. In fact, the pill was primarily tested on women without their knowledge of what they were taking.
I am not arguing against the pill. In fact, I am a huge fan. However, I am trying to say that women have been getting the short end of the stick for generations, especially, in the health department. When it comes to giving women real attainable access to health care, sexual health care even, we are lightyears away from achieving real equality.
There is a lot of controversy around these subjects, which I have never understood. I have a right to decide what I want to do with my body. No one should tell me I can't or that it's against their moral code. Shouldn't I have the right to my body?
When did women lose their rights to their bodies? Did we ever even have it? Am I going to gain body autonomy when I'm dead? Is that what it's going to take?