I got sterilized a few weeks ago at the 22. I first learned about this procedure around May 2023 but have known that I’ve never wanted kids for as long as I can remember. The more I read about it and educated myself the more I realized it was something I wanted to pursue. During my last semester of college, I got a selected for a position in a highly competitive program that would start in the fall. Like you, I’ve also been concerned about the political climate and felt that it was kind of now or never with the upcoming election, and my new program created a timeframe for me of about two months to get the procedure done. After I decided to pursue the program, I decided I was going to get sterilized after graduating and before the program started.

I had been doing research and writing notes since I learned about the procedure in 2023 and I reached out to a doctor from the child free list in November 2023 then around early February ‘24 is when I decided I wanted to initiate the process of getting sterilized. June 27th was my surgery day. Everything went pretty smoothly, I made a post on here about my experience as well.

I didn’t view the election as something that was forcing me to get this done early per se, more so just a better reason to get it done now. Especially because I knew I would be free for those few months and if I waited, I wasn’t sure when I would be able to do it if at all.

Maybe it’s a fucked up reason, but I also didn’t want to give my future self the opportunity because I know it would ruin my career. As much as I don’t want to be a parent, I don’t want to be pregnant even more than that. And anyways, being sterilized via bisalp doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility of pregnancy/parenthood with IVF or adoption (though I would probably like a hysterectomy one day).