Esterilización quirúrgica voluntaria como práctica anticonceptiva de las mujeres en Chile: resistencias, intereses y estigma reproductivo

Abstract

Nowadays, voluntary surgical sterilization is the most widespread contraceptive method in the world, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean with important individual and social implications because it is definitive and it totally depends on institutionalized biomedicine. From health anthropology with a critical and feminist perspective, this research addresses the decision-making process, access to the procedure, and the practices and representations of patients and health staff regarding the subject, identifying stigmas around voluntary surgical sterilization. The study was developed in Valparaíso, Chile, from 2015 to 2017, with a qualitative design that makes use of mixed techniques: review of patients’ medical records, interviews with patients and medical staff, observation of activities and medical spots in two public health facilities. The conclusion is that the decrease of voluntary surgical sterilization in Chile arises from health practices that reproduce gender constructions that organize the health system, the means of attention and surgical resources, in this way discouraging demand; whereas women look at this procedure as an alternative to improve their health, their own living conditions, and their family living conditions as a way to achieve autonomy. The aim of this research is to contribute to public health by shedding light on a problem that affects women, especially poor and marginalized women exercising their sexual and reproductive rights.