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Health

12th Jul 2017

A woman has shared her story of being medically sterilised at 30

"You can just not want kids because you don't want kids."

Anna O'Rourke

“You can just not want kids because you don’t want kids.”

A woman in the UK has defended her decision to be medically sterilised at 30.

It was a four-year struggle for Holly Brockwell, who originally sought to end her chances of having children at 26.

Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, she said that she never wanted to be a mum but thought her biological clock might start ticking.

“I expected at some point that it would kick in, that some day I would suddenly want them… but the more I got older and got into serious relationships and it became a possibility, I thought I don’t feel good about this, I don’t want this.”

There are deep-seeded reasons but I think it’s a bit disingenuous to other women to say ‘the reason that you don’t want kids because of X,Y,Z’… You can just not want kids because you don’t want kids

She said the “horrendous” side effects she suffered from the pill also contributed to her decision.

A woman has shared her story of being medically sterilised at 30

Holly was 30 before she managed to convince NHS doctors to let her undergo tubal ligation, or have her tubes tied.

When asked by panellist Janet St Porter how she knew she wouldn’t change her mind, she said;

“How do you know anything? How do you know you want the career your want?

“Nobody goes up to pregnant women and says ‘are you sure you’re not going to change your mind about that in ten years?'”

She fell pregnant by accident while on two forms of contraception, but miscarried the child naturally, an experience that she says she tries not to think about.

“That was not a good time in my life… I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

Holly’s parter Zac appeared alongside her and said also knew had had no desire to become a parent.

“It’s never been something that’s been part of my life plan either and I think one of the major reasons we became a couple is because we were quite similarly minded,” he said.