Sterilisation at a young age

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I know there was a thread with a similar topic before, but my age and circumstances are different to the original poster of that thread.

I'm 17, and am pretty sure I never want to have children for several reasons: the risk of passing on my condition, the fact I could never teach them social skills, my tendency to focus on my interests (which would probably lead to me neglecting any kids I'd have) and the fact I'm just plain grossed out by having the ability to reproduce and would rather be unable to.

However, I know no Australian doctor in their right mind would let a teenager who's still developing get a hysterectomy, and would probably say "You're too young to know for sure". I'd also love to never have another period again (even though I'm on Depo-Provera at the moment, it's not permanent and I know the insides are still there). How could I go about getting the surgery done, or an alternative?

Try Essure and Novasure when you turn 18. It will get rid of (most of) your period and is permanent birth control, but cheaper and less invasive than hysterectomy.

I'm 24 and live in the same country as you - and they refuse to do it for me.

The reality is that the very scant other options mentioned are also usually illegal here, or impossible to find or get prescribed.

That's a damn shame. There are 7 billion people on this rock.

While I'm not in favor of forbidding someone from reproducing, or telling anyone who's capable of tending to their own 5S's (s**t, shower, shelter, sustenance, and $$) that they shouldn't reproduce...

...I'm not stupid enough to think that makes it OK to stuff the possibility down someone else's throat, either.

SHEESH.

Good God-- If I hadn't had my tubes ties, I'd be two months gone with #5. I love my kids. I love my job. But-- everyone has a right to draw their own line.

There is nothing wrong with not wanting to have kids, but I would say hold off on anything permanent that forever prevents a change of heart. Especially if you're only 17.

I absolutely did not want kids all my younger life -- until some life events happened to me that completely changed me and my priorities. I suddenly dearly wanted a child. It turned out that I never could and never did, and now I'm past the age where I can. I still regret not having that experience.

It's NOT for everyone, and who is to say I would have hated being a mother if I had gotten my wish? It might have all turned out terribly, I'm prepared to note.

But I still find it interesting that for the first thirty years of my life I was SO not interested in ever, ever having a family -- and then a couple of traumatic losses made me do a 180.

This is just to say, you never know what's going to happen to make you a different person one day, with a different mindset than the one you have now.

I'm not trying to belittle the certainty that someone can feel about a thing like this, and it's GOOD to feel certain about something so important. But I'm just saying, things can change, and my 25 year old self would never have believed how my later self wound up feeling about this.

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It's actually not because they don't consider her an adult. They refuse by default any woman who has not had at least one child before - that way if she changes her mind later in life, she can't sue them. This is true even if women in who are 30 and certainly adults. It's all about the legal and insurance reasons.

I have to say, my mind is really struggling with this concept - someone doesn't want to have children, but wants to have sex, so they think it's unfair that someone else refuses to cut into their body and mutilate them to the point of being unable to have children - rather than them abstaining from sex or practicing safe sex with option of morning after pill or even another, more commonly performed mutilation (abortion) instead?

I hasten to add - I don't have children & I knew early on that I didn't want to have them (much like OP).

In my case it's not about not wanting to have sex (although since I cannot take hormonal birth control it is a major issue) but more along the lines of my hormones, period etc not making my life hell anymore. As someone who never had their gender and sex in alignment to begin with, doing this would go a long way to improving my quality of life as well as probably allowing me to keep a better handle of my autistic symptoms and medical conditions since mine have a marked difference based in hormones.

And realistically speaking when it comes to sex, things break sometimes without you even knowing, birth control is not 100%. And in a case like mine where being pregnant puts my life in danger at the point of over 50% risk due to multiple autoimmune diseases - yes, I do find it ridiculous that they won't do it - especially considering this is the one foolproof way to stop that happening and therefore the best way I can take responsibility for it. It is my life and my body, and as I'm paying for it, it does not make sense to me.

The issue is that there is pretty much an unspoken blanket ban on it, even though there are cases like mine that have extenuating circumstances where it is clearly the best option. Instead of assessing it on a case by case basis - there is that unspoken blanket ban due to legal and insurance reasons.

I have considered it and I may have to the next time I go back to one of my home countries. They have refused it here on multiple occasions. The only major issue is the difference in medical standards and hygiene which is really the risky aspect of doing it somewhere else.

I have asked around here for at least 12 specialists and they have all told me the same thing - to do it for a woman without at least one child is not done unless it's a medical emergency. Preventing a medical emergency does not seem to be good enough for them.

I'll say. And generally if you react badly to the pill, you react much worse to the morning after pill. Abortion is not always the clean quick no mess ending some people make it out to be either - it too has it's side effects and some people can react quite badly to it, both mentally and physically.

It doesn't make much sense to apply idealism to a non-ideal situation. Sadly I see a lot if people doing that, especially around reproductive issues.