[Sterilization--where are we and what do we want?]

According to the estimation from the mid-eighties, about 135 million people were sterilized, 95 million females and 40 million males. In 1977, sterilization was legalized in Slovenia, in 1978 in Croatia. In the period from 1978 to 1989, 4,503 females and 654 males were sterilized in Slovenia. The majority of female sterilizations were performed in the interval and post partum (the third cesarean section), applying laparoscopy or mini-laparotomy according to Pomeroy, in some cases the obsolete Madlener technique, while vasectomies were performed by using the standard method. The accurate statistical data on complications are not available but are estimated to be minimal. Requests for a tubal or seminal duct reconstruction have been exceptional. With a higher number of sterilizations the incidence of induced abortions in women at the age of more than 35 years would be reduced and the use of contraception would be increased. Yugoslavia, besides Albania and the Soviet Union, was the last to resort to contraceptives.