The number of sterilisations has been steadily decreasing over the past decade. Reasons for this include new contraceptive methods such as intrauterine devices as well as women having children at more advanced ages.
With far more tubal ligations than vasectomies, Finland lags behind in gender equality compared to countries such as Denmark, where men undergo half of the sterilisations. As research professor Mika Gissler from the National Institute for Health and Welfare points out, in places like the Netherlands there are more vasectomies than tubal ligations. In Finland reproductive and sexual health issues are still seen to be mainly women’s concerns, Gissler continues. Indeed, most of the services in the field are for women.
Most of the women undergoing sterilisation are between the ages of 35 and 39. However, as Professor Gissler notes, a vasectomy is in fact a much simpler operation than a tubal ligation, and is as such preferable to women’s sterilisation. Gissler calls for more education and public information on vasectomies and contraception for men.
Waning interest in vasectomies
In 2009, more than 2,500 women had tubal ligations in Finland. This was over a thousand operations more than those performed on men. Docent of Urology Erkki Rintala at the Helsinki University Central Hospital has noticed a clear drop in men’s interest towards the operation in recent times. As possible reasons for this Rintala cites long public healthcare waiting times – where men may have to queue up to two years for the operation – as well as fears of losing one’s manhood.
Indeed, should the need to reverse the operation arise due to circumstances such as changing partners, the death of a child, or other problems, success is far from guaranteed. Only about 30 to 35 percent of men are capable of having children after the severed tubes have been surgically rejoined.