A 30-YEAR-OLD woman has won a four-year battle with the NHS and will now be
sterilised.
Holly Brockwell has made no secret of her desire to have her tubes tied, with
the tech writer subjected to online abuse after she wrote about it.
She first sought the operation four years ago but until this week she was
repeatedly told she was too young to make such a drastic decision.
Holly explained: “As a woman who doesn’t want kids – at all, ever – I’ve been
asking to get my tubes tied since the age of 26.
“Every year for the last four years my GP has refused my decision. I couldn’t
even get a referral.
“The response was always: ‘You’re far too young to take such a drastic
decision.’
“But now I’ve been put on the list for surgery and will finally be able to be
sterilised later this year.
“It’s something I’ve wanted for years, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy
decision to make.
“It’s one I’ve researched, considered, weighed-up and defended, over and over
again.”
Holly is furious that people seem to think she’s making a “snap judgement” on
her fertility.
She’s been met by many different responses when she tells people she wants to
be sterilised, ranging from those who can’t understand her choice to others
who attempt to make her feel guilty.
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Friends have questioned who will care for her when she’s older if she doesn’t
have kids, and doctors have warned she might change her mind. This is what
really angers Holly.
She writes in The Telegraph: “Ask yourself if they’d say the same to a
26-year-old woman who decided to have a child.
“Both choices are permanent, so why do GPs think I’ll change my mind about
becoming a mum, but someone who has a child won’t?”
Holly, the editor of website Gadgette, has been encouraged to “try other
options” repeatedly, and yet she’s struggled to find birth control which
doesn’t make her feel ill.
She said: “I’ve tried every form of the Pill and currently take one with a
dose of hormones so high it makes me vomit, and puts me at increased risk of
blood clots.”
She was mercilessly bullied online after she went public with her desire to be
sterilised and still gets abused on Twitter.
The writer believes showing some of this to her doctors is why she has finally
been taken seriously.
Although her consultant initially suggested she have a coil fitted and
discussed whether her boyfriend should have a vasectomy, the operation was
finally agreed. At the moment Holly doesn’t have a date for it, but it will
be in the next few months.
She added: “Now that the NHS has finally agreed to sterilise me, I can relax.
“I don’t feel sad or regretful, or worried that I’ve made the wrong choice.
“In fact, when the consultant signed the form, I felt elated – something I’d
never get from a positive pregnancy test.”