A follow-up study of one hundred cases of sterilization by tubal ligation.

IN THE Royal Maternity Hospital and the Gynaecological Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, as at other hospitals, the operation of tubal ligation is being performed more readily and in greater numbers than previously. In 1963 fifteen were done, in 1967, one hundred and twenty-six. It is becoming less a matter of medical necessity and more a matter of personal choice and it was therefore thought that it would be interesting to follow up the women who had had this operation performed. The primary interest has not been in the techniques of operation and their relative efficacy but in patient reaction to the operation, including how well prepared by previous discussion the patient and her husband were, whether any regrets were experienced and whether there were any differences noted afterwards in the circumstances of the woman, the couple or the family.