After having unprotected sex for several years, she could no longer worry about unwanted pregnancies.
Photo: Private
After a long journey through the jungle of contraceptives, without success, 35-year-old Lindha Bajrami chose to sterilize herself, something that Norrköping Tidningar has previously written about.
– It came to me out of nowhere. No one close to me has done that. It was probably just that I was thinking about contraception and that nothing works, says Lindha and continues:
– It’s really nice. I haven’t regretted it for a second.
No contraceptive was suitable
The first attempt at contraception was mini-pills that she got as a teenager. She chose after a while to stop taking them because she felt bad from the added hormones.
The copper IUD was not long-lasting and condoms were never an option, resulting in her having unprotected sex for many years. Instead, she used an app where she entered when she had her period and various symptoms she experienced. The app then kept track of when the next period was expected to arrive.
– But every period, only when it was a day or two late, then I got stressed out. I took countless pregnancy tests and there I felt that it wasn’t really sustainable in the long run, says Lindha.
She was ready
Lindha already has three children, two daughters aged 11 and 8, and a son who is 3 years old. She has separated from both her daughters’ father and her son’s father.
Since she is alone with three children, she felt there was no room for another. One of the children also has health problems, which has been tough. She was ready. During this period, the first thought of sterilization came as a possibility.
– Then I got pregnant again when I was dating a guy, but then I had an abortion. After that abortion, I had really decided to sterilize myself. Abortion is very difficult and it’s not like I see abortion as a contraceptive.
Sterilized with peephole surgery
After the abortion, she soon called the women’s clinic in Norrköping. A few months later, she got an appointment with a doctor and then it was just a matter of signing a piece of paper to the National Board of Health and Welfare to prove that the procedure was done of her own free will.
In March 2022, the sterilization was carried out with a peephole operation that took 15-20 minutes. Just a few hours after the operation, she was free to walk.
– The only thing I asked for when I woke up was coffee. I drank my coffee and got a sandwich when I woke up, then they wanted me to pee and then I was free to go.
Lindha says that she was not in pain after the operation, but she has had pain afterwards around ovulation. After she sought treatment for the pains, a gynecologist was able to state that everything looked fine, but that the pains could be caused by the scar tissue.
For Lindha, there is nothing that affects her view of the sterilization and she states that the pain is something she can live with. Overall, she is satisfied with the sterilization.
– For me, sterilization was a fairly natural choice.
In 2017, there were 2,036 women who chose to be sterilized and 2,470 men, according to statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare.
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