Sterilisations in girls and young women: is it still happening?

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether sterilising procedures — hysterectomies, endometrial ablations or tubal ligations — are being performed in minors for non-therapeutic reasons, without Family Law Court approval. Methods: Victorian Admitted Episode Dataset 1996–99 was used to identify all young women < 18 who had a sterilising procedure. Associated codes for indications and pathology were reviewed to exclude malignancies, congenital anomalies, potential miscoding and misleading codes associated with endometriosis. Results: Although 40 procedures were identified from the dataset, the majority of these can be excluded after review of the associated codes. In two cases sterilising procedures were performed without clear therapeutic indications and it is likely they were done in young women with disabilities. No Family Law Court applications were heard in this time period, thus it is likely they represent unlawful sterilisations. Conclusions: It would appear that sterilisations without Family Law Court approval are probably occurring at very low rates in Victoria.