Summary

In this study session, you have learned that:

• Both male and female sterilisation can be carried out using local anaesthesia with light sedation under strict aseptic conditions and practices to avoid infection.
• The pre-operative counselling process is very important. You need to tell the client that VSC is almost always irreversible. Therefore, once the client has undergone the procedure, it will be very difficult for them to have children again. Additionally, you need to make sure that the decision for or against sterilisation is made by the client and is not pressured or forced on them by anyone else.
• Tubal ligation is the female sterilisation procedure which involves blocking the fallopian tubes to prevent the egg from travelling down the tubes to where fertilisation takes place. It also prevents sperm from moving up the fallopian tubes to fertilise an egg.
• Women are able to fully enjoy sex after a tubal ligation. Some women experience improved sexual pleasure because they are less worried about becoming pregnant.
• Vasectomy is a permanent method of contraception for men, involving a minor surgical procedure where the vasa deferentia, or sperm ducts, of a man are cut and then tied to prevent the sperm from mixing into the semen when men ejaculate.
• The sperm that were already in the vasa deferentia before the operation need to be ejaculated in order for the vasectomy to be effective. This may take about a month, or 10–30 ejaculations.
• One of the major advantages of VSC is that it is a permanent birth control method, and cost-effective in the long run.