A comparison of women's regret after vasectomy versus tubal sterilization

OBJECTIVE: To compare the 5-year cumulative probability of regret and risk factors for regret among women whose husbands underwent vasectomy with women after tubal sterilization. METHODS: A total of 525 women whose husbands underwent vasectomy were compared with 3672 women who underwent tubal sterilization in a prospective multicenter cohort study. RESULTS: The cumulative probability of a woman expressing regret within 5 years after her husband's vasectomy was 6.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.6 8.6) which was similar to the 5-year cumulative probability of regret among women after tubal sterilization (7.0% 95% CI 5.8 8.1). Women who reported substantial conflict with their husbands before vasectomy were more than 25 times more likely to request that their husband have a reversal than women who did not report such conflict (rate ratio 25.3 95% CI 2.9 217.2). Similarly women who reported substantial conflict with their husbands or partners before tubal sterilization were more then three times as likely to regret their decision and more than five times as likely to request a reversal than women who did not report such conflict (rate ratio 3.1 95% CI 1.4 7.0 and rate ratio 5.4 95% CI 1.6 17.6 respectively). CONCLUSION: Most women did not express regret after their husband's vasectomy and the probability of regret was similar to sterilized women. However when there was substantial conflict between a woman and her husband before vasectomy or tubal sterilization the probability of subsequent request for reversal was increased.