Menstrual pattern change 1 year after sterilization: results of a controlled, prospective study

To determine if female sterilization is associated with adverse menstrual change, we compared prospectively collected menstrual data from women who underwent sterilization via bipolar cauterization, banding, and Pomeroy ligation with data from women whose husbands obtained a vasectomy and from women who were not planning sterilization. At first-year follow-up, sterilization via banding with Falope rings was not associated with adverse change. After excluding initially abnormal cases: (1) cauterization women were bleeding more heavily than all other groups excepting Pomeroy; (2) cauterization and Pomeroy women experienced more dysmenorrhea than women not planning sterilization; and (3) more cauterization and Pomeroy women (collapsed samples) developed abnormal length cycles than did the two control groups. There were no group differences regarding development of beneficial/neutral change (e.g., decreased dysmenorrhea). However, cauterization and Pomeroy groups experienced a significantly higher average number of adverse changes than did the other groups and were at significantly greater risk of developing one or more adverse changes than were women not planning sterilization. The only pattern of association among adverse menstrual changes occurred significantly more often in the cauterization and next in the Pomeroy groups.