The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #45642

Evelyn Landry, MPH¹, Ines Escandon, MPH¹, Lyn N. Henderson, MPH², and Karen J. Beattie, MA¹. (1) EngenderHealth, 440 9th Ave., 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001, 212 561 8000, elandry@engenderHealth.org, (2) UNICEF, Unicef, 3 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017

Today, more than one-fourth of the world's 6 billion people are aged 10-24. This "critical cohort" will determine the shape and size of the world's future population through their fertility decisions. Though more contraceptive options are available now than 20 years ago, sterilization continues to be the most widely relied upon method for couples who want to limit the size of their families. Sterilization will undoubtedly become a contraceptive choice for many of these individuals, most of whom live in developing countries. The purpose of this presentation is present findings from a review of the current state of sterilization throughout the world. The presentation will address the following: current status of laws and regulations governing sterilization, factors influencing sterilization use and outcomes, trends of sterilization use from survey data for more than 50 countries, a review of service delivery challenges, and finally, an examination of the estimated future prevalence of female and male sterilization in developing countries.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will know which countries in the world will have the largest expected growth rates in sterilization by 2015 and will be able to name 5 challenges to providing sterilization services

Keywords: Contraception, Family Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.