Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:10:36.529Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychological sequelae of female sterilization: short-term outcome in a prospective controlled study: A report from the UK Field Research Centre of a WHO Collaborative Project1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

K. D. Bledin ,
J. E. Cooper ,
S. Mackenzie  and
B. Brice
K. D. Bledin*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham
J. E. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham
S. Mackenzie
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham
B. Brice
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham
*
2Address for correspondence: K. D. Bledin, Research Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham Medical School, Clifton Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 2UH.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Healthy multiparous women having elective interval (N = 69) or postpartum (N = 69) sterilization were interviewed pre-operatively and 6 weeks and 6 months post-operatively, using standardized instruments. They did not differ significantly from control samples of comparable non-sterilized women with respect to mental state (Present State Examination) or subjectively-assessed mental or physical health or abdominal pain. More sterilization subjects than control subjects reported subjectively experienced improvement in sexual satisfaction at the later follow-up. Reports of poor physical health and abdominal pain increased over time within both the sterilization and the control groups. Reports of adverse effects at follow-up were often associated with higher PSE scores initially. Regrets and wish for reversal were rare and were also associated with higher initial PSE scores. Since the adverse effects were more common among postpartum subjects, it is suggested that subjectively experienced sequelae of sterilization may sometimes be attributable to ‘normal’ postnatal events.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , May 1984 , pp. 379 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Details of the collaborating centres and investigators are given in Appendix C.

References

Bledin, K. D., Beral, V. & Ashley, J. S. A. (1978). Recent trends in sterilization in women. Health Trends 10, 84–87.Google Scholar
Campanella, R. & Wolff, J. R. (1975). Emotional reaction to sterilization. Obstetrics and Gynecology 45, 331–334.Google Scholar
Cooper, P., Gath, D., Fieldsend, R. & Rose, N. (1981). Psychological and physical outcome after elective tubal sterilization. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 25, 357–360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, P., Gath, D., Rose, N. & Fieldsend, R. (1982). Psychological sequelae to elective sterilization: a prospective study. British Medical Journal i, 461–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Destefano, F., Greenspan, J. R., Dicker, R. C., Peterson, H. B., Strauss, L. T. & Rubin, G. L. (1983). Complications of interval laparoscopic tubal sterilization. Obstetrics and Gynecology 61, 153–158.Google ScholarPubMed
Emens, J. M. & Olive, J. E. (1978). Timing of female sterilization. British Medical Journal ii, 1126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, O. & Seager, C. P. (1978). Incidence of depressive symptoms in users of oral contraceptives. British Journal of Psychiatry 132, 431–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gath, D. & Cooper, P. J. (1982). Psychiatric aspects of hysterectomy and female sterilization. In Recent Advances in Clinical Psychiatry (ed. Granville-Grossman, K.), pp. 75–100. Churchill Livingstone: London.Google Scholar
Green, C. (1978). Voluntary sterilization: world's leading contraceptive method. Population Reports Special Topic Monographs No. 2, 37–50.Google Scholar
Hughes, G. & Liston, W. A. (1975). Comparison between laparoscopic sterilization and tubal ligation. British Medical Journal iii, 637–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khoo, S. E. (1980). The Prevalence and Demographic Analysis of Sterilization: a Report of the Workshop on Methodological Aspects of the Demographic Analysis of Sterilization. IUSSP Papers No. 17. Liege.Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. W. (1982). The health of sterilized women. The Practitioner 226, 925–928.Google ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S., Emms, E. M., Fletcher, J. & Rassaby, E. S. (1980). Life events and social support in puerperal depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 136, 339–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pitt, B. (1968). ‘Atypical‘ depression following childbirth. British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 1325–1335.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwyhart, W. R. & Kutner, S. J. (1973). A reanalysis of female reactions to contraceptive sterilization. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 156, 354–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sim, M., Emens, J. M. & Jordan, J. A. (1973). Psychiatric aspects of female sterilization. British Medical Journal iii, 220–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. H. W. (1979). Psychiatric aspects of sterilization: a prospective study. British Journal of Psychiatry 135, 304–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, P. & Templeton, A. (1978). Characteristics of patients requesting reversal of sterilization. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 85, 161–164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vessey, M., Huggins, G., Lawless, M.McPherson, K. & Yeates, D. (1983). Tubal sterilization: findings in a large prospective study. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 90, 203–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitelaw, R. G. (1979). 10-year survey of 485 sterilizations. British Medical Journal i, 32–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wing, J. K. (1976). A technique for studying psychiatric morbidity in in-patient and out-patient series and in general population samples. Psychological Medicine 6, 665–671.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K. & Sturt, E. (1978). The PSE–ID–CATEGO System Supplementary Manual. MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry: London.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Nixon, J. M., Mann, S. A. & Leff, J. P. (1977). Reliability of the PSE (ninth edition) used in a population study. Psychological Medicine 7, 505–516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winston, R. M. L. (1977). Why 103 women asked for reversal of sterilization. British Medical Journal ii, 305–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (1984). Mental health and female sterilization: report of a WHO collaborative prospective study. Journal of Biosocial Science 16, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, A. F. (1981). How women felt about their sterilization – a follow-up of 368 patients in a general practice. Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners 31, 598–604.Google ScholarPubMed