Counseling women who request sterilization: psychodynamic issues and interventions.
With large numbers of women seeking sterilization each year, including over half a million in 1983 alone, the problem of regretted sterilization and efforts to prevent regret have become matters of concern to health care providers. This paper describes a sterilization counseling program designed to reduce the likelihood of regretted sterilization. Discussed are factors which help predict satisfaction or regret following sterilization. A psychodynamic approach to sterilization counseling informed by these factors is described. Case vignettes are included, as is a retrospective analysis of candidates counseled during one year of the program.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003268:Contraception Behavior; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D004243:Divorce; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012306:Risk; D013243:Sterilization Reversal / Q000523:psychology; D013246:Sterilization, Tubal / Q000523:psychology*