Male vs. Female Sterilization: A Comparative Study of this Decision in Québec and France

Laurence Charton, Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg
Evelyne Lapierre-Adamcyk, Université de Montréal

During the early 1970’s, contraceptive sterilization became very popular in Quebec. Since 1988, the annual number of vasectomies is higher that the number of tubal ligations. In France, contraceptive sterilization remains fairly rare, maybe partly because sterilization has only been authorized since July 2001. Using data from Québec and France retrospective longitudinal surveys (General Social Survey, 2001 for Québec; Generations and Gender, 2005 for France), and qualitative data collected in Québec in 2005 and in France in 2006 from men and women having voluntary sterilization, this paper will put the emphasis on (1) variables that may be important to recourse to tubal ligation or vasectomy in Québec and in France, (2) the differences between Québec and France sterilization rates to try to understand what are the logics and the strategies that underlie contraceptive practices and (3) we will examine the choice between male or female sterilization in these two societies.