A (brief) history of female sterilisation 

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to contraception methods; the pill, the implant, IUDs, condoms. Each offers the promise of protection, albeit with side effects and varying degrees of success. But what if you never want to be pregnant, again or at all? 

Considered the ‘gold standard’ for its ease-of-use and unrivalled effectiveness, female sterilisation has become the most common form of contraception worldwide. In 2024, Statista found sterilisation to be the contraceptive method of choice for 25% of women worldwide, compared to 16% using the pill, which has been mirrored by regional research including that of the CDC in the US and the International Institute for Population Sciences found cases of voluntary sterilisation in India to be even higher at 37%.