Female sterilization in the life course: Understanding trends and differentials in early sterilization

Abstract

Socioeconomically disadvantaged women and women of color are more likely than other women both to undergo contraceptive sterilization and to desire sterilization reversal. Although younger age at sterilization is associated with greater likelihood of regret, we know little about socioeconomic and racial/ethnic differences in sterilization timing within the life course. OBJECTIVE We examine racial, ethnic, and educational differences in the prevalence of sterilization and its timing in the life course. birth, parity, and history of unintended childbearing). We model early sterilization using logistic regression, limiting the sample to sterilized women only in order to consider the life timing of sterilization separately from its overall likelihood of occurrence at some point in the life course. We pool data over the entire period from 1995 to 2019 to increase sample sizes and limit the sample to older women, age 40 to 44, in order to observe respondents toward the end of their reproductive lives.