It is a decision which is sometimes viewed with circumspection in those around them and even in doctors’ offices: that of young people who wish, even before their 30th birthday and in the face of a non-desire for a child, often for a long time pegged to the body, carry out voluntary sterilization. At 26, Noé Vaccari is eagerly awaiting his vasectomy, an operation that blocks the channels allowing the circulation of sperm.
After several disappointments with practitioners reluctant to accept the operation, judging the person concerned too young to make this choice (in most cases irreversible), the man living in Villeurbanne (Rhône) ended up joining the waiting list from a urologist. A specialist who would still have preferred that he carry out sperm conservation, just in case, which meant nothing to Noé, who had been certain for years that he would never want a child. “You must always be ready to draw out your arguments”he explains.
In recent years, the subject of early sterilizations has emerged precisely around this difficulty, to which many young people testify, in finding a practitioner inclined to let them play the pool before their 30th birthday. Sterilization for contraceptive purposes has been legal for all adults since 2001but doctors have the right to object to a conscience clause – provided they direct them to another practitioner, which is not always respected.
To get around the problem, Séphora Manuel, who had a tubal ligation at the age of 24, four years ago, went through Facebook groups, where the names of doctors in favor of this surgical procedure circulate. “I was lucky enough to be able to move to another city. But that still says a lot about the desire for control over women’s bodies.”she is indignant.
“Growing demand”
Benoît Morin, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Strasbourg who performs these sterilization procedures, knows that his name appears on some of these lists. However, the women who come to him are now, most of the time, referred by general practitioners, medical gynecologists or midwives, notes the doctor. A sign, according to him, that this possibility of confirming very early on a non-desire for procreation, and therefore of wanting at the same time to get rid of the burden of contraception, “creates fewer and fewer blockages”.
Urological surgeon in a private clinic in Lyon, Jonas Wilisch notes a “growing demand” for vasectomies, in all age groups. “We have an increase of around 30% in requests each year: the sign of a growing desire, but perhaps above all of a greater awareness that this solution exists, with more public communication”he observes.
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