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While it is believed that state-facilitated forced sterilization (eugenics) programs have ended in the eighties, many women continue to receive tubal ligation (a form of permanent birth control achieved through cutting, burning or physically blocking fallopian tubes) without their complete informed consent--because the information about possible side effects are systemically and routinely withheld from them, alleges Coalition for Post Tubal Women (CPTWomen) in its press release.
According to CPTWomen, side effects of tubal ligation is well known among American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) members, and yet they do not discuss them with their patients. Among other things, CPTWomen is collecting signatures to urge legislators to enact a legislation titled Modernization Act for Women's Informed Consent for Tubal Ligation and Fallopian Tube Devices for Contraception, which would spell out what kind of information need to be disclosed before certain procedures can take place--which is exactly what we are trying to do with intersex "normalizing" surgeries.
It should be obvious, but it is worth noting the fact that the highly questionable medical treatment of intersex children does not happen in a vacuum. It is part of the same medical system that once promoted (and continues to promote in subtler ways) forced sterilization on poor, disabled and/or non-white women, among other things. To paraphrase Alice Dreger, who explored similar point in a recent article , intersex (mal)treatment is not the exception, but the standard of the Western medical paradigm.
More information about Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome, including bibliography of medical literature that address them, can be found at CPTWomen website; as a counterpoint, you can read what an OB/GYN would tell you about side effects (i.e. little if any) at MedlinePlus.
Posted by Emi on Mar 28, 2005