Female Sterilization in Nepal: A Comparison Of Two Types of Service Delivery

Nepal’s national family planning program. It has often been the only way in which sterilization services could be provided to couples who wanted to stop childbearing but who could not afford to travel to static facilities. Male sterilization services were offered in camps as early as 1970, followed by female sterilization services a few years later. Laparoscopy was the first technique introduced for female sterilization in Nepal, and early assessments concluded that providing laparoscopic sterilizations in camps was medically safe and acceptable.1 By the mid-1970s, the number of female sterilizations performed in the country far outnumbered the number of vasectomies, a trend that has continued to the present (Figure 1). During the five-year period between mid-April 1991 and mid-April 1996, there were 196 female sterilizations for every 100 male sterilizations.* During the late 1970s, the Ministry of Health began more concentrated efforts to expand the number of static service sites available year round for sterilization and other clinical services. By the early 1980s, 32 operating theaters at district and zone hospitals and several family planning clinShyam Thapa is a senior scientist at Family Health International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, and is presently technical advisor with the Family Health Division, Ministry of Health, Kathmandu, Nepal. Matthew Friedman is an advisor in the Office of Health and Family Planning, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission, Kathmandu, Nepal. This research was supported by USAID; the interpretation of the data and the views expressed are, however, solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the funding agency or of the authors’ affiliated organizations. Female Sterilization in Nepal: A Comparison Of Two Types of Service Delivery