Vasectomies increase

Press, 31 August 1977, Page 7

Vasectomies increase

Wellington reporter

The number of vasecomies (male sterilisa--1 has increased dramatically in the Ist five years, and there has also been a great increase in the number of female sterilisations, according to the Health Department's annual report. Available national data related only to operations done in public hospitals and they showed a far higher proportion of female sterilisations than

was probably the case. A family ’ growth study had shown that 60 per cent of the vasectomies in the Hutt Valley were done in a doctor’s surgery, while mare than 80 per cent of female sterilisations were done in a

public hospital. There were 622 vasectomies conducted in public hospitals in 1976-77, compared with 244 in 1971, the report said. The extent of sterilisation services varied greatly from one hospital board

to another, and one factor influencing this was the demand for urgent surgical work. A vasectomy was relatively easy to arrange be* cause it could be done in doctors’ surgeries and outpatients’ departments

as well as in hospitals, but female sterilisation was a more complex procedure invariably requiring admission to hospital. Both operations occurred in private hospitals, but if was not known to what extent.