A woman decided to get sterilised at the age of just 25 after 'knowing all her life' that she definitely did not want any children.
Katelyn Stoewsand, now 27, has had her fallopian tubes removed to ensure that she will never be able to get pregnant naturally.
After starting birth control pills when she was 15, Katelyn later deciding on using an intra uterine device (IUD), sometimes known as a coil.
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But when her IUD started to near its expiration date, she wanted to try something more permanent - and with fewer side effects.
Katelyn said: “My hormonal birth control made me gain a bunch of weight, tanked my sex drive, and made me feel depressed.
“I had an awful quality of life when I was on the hormonal birth control; it wouldn't have been worth it to stay on it.”
Katelyn instead opted for a salpingectomy, an operation that removed her fallopian tubes, ensuring that she would never be able to conceive naturally.
She said she was already following a subreddit that provided a list of doctors that perform sterilisation for women and found one near to where she lived.
Katelyn, from St. Louis, Missouri, USA, said the doctor initially asked her what she would do if she changed her mind about having a family.
“I told them I would adopt, but was sure I wouldn’t change mind,” she said.
When they asked about her current partners thoughts, Katelyn said she told them it was irrelevant "because it was my body and my choice".
Two weeks after her exam, Katelyn had the surgery, and an "easy recovery" followed, she said.
“I had surgery on Friday and left for Boston on Sunday and walked for three hours," she said.
Katelyn said that in vitro fertilisation is still be an option following a sterilisation, but there is no way to get pregnant naturally, and the operation is irreversible.
“I didn’t want anything that was reversible because it could fail," she said. "There’s zero precent chance that I’ll end up with my own family.”
Explaining her reasoning for not wanting children, Katelyn said: “I’ve known all my life that I didn’t want children, even when I was a kid, I wasn’t interested in interacting with other kids.
“I’m pretty impatient around kids. I’m not much of a people person either.”
She added: “The biggest reason is more about my free time and being able to spend money the way I want to.”
Katelyn said the people closest to her were supportive of her decision - but not everyone understood her decision.
“It was co-workers and acquaintances that had the most to say, which shocked me that they felt they had the right to have an opinion on that,” she said.
“But as far as people who matter, they’ve been super supportive.”
Kaetlyn said her decision to get sterilised was also influenced by her mother figure, who never put pressure on her to become a mother herself.
“She always presented it to me as a choice that I was going to get to make,” she said.
“She always told me how much work it was, and I was never interested and along with her I came to the decision that I didn’t want to be a parent.”
Katelyn stressed the importance of women being able to control their own reproductivity and wants to normalise women not wanting children.
“A lot of doctors are male, and it makes me sick to my stomach that this is what some women want to do and they’re being told no,” she said.
“Showing women that it’s possible to find the right doctor and showing them it’s not a lost cause for what they want is really important.”
She added: “It’s important to normalise not wanting to be a parent and not making it taboo to not want a family."
Katelyn said she encourages others who are interested to research the procedure and make sure it is what they really want before going ahead.
“If you’re on the fence, I wouldn’t recommend getting sterilised because it’s irreversible,” she said.
“You should make absolutely positive that it’s what you want. If you do decide, I would recommend being confident when speaking with doctors and keep on keeping on.
“I got really lucky that I didn’t have any doctors turn me away, but I know some women work years to find a doctor that’s willing to do it. But keep trying because it’s your body to do what you want to.”
