Cervical cytology screening after tubal ligation

Tubal ligation has become one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures, and estimates suggest that over 50 percent of all women will undergo surgical sterilization by age 45. Preventive health procedures such as Pap tests are often performed when women visit physicians for family planning and obstetric care. Since women do not visit physicians for these reasons following tubal ligation, it is important to know how their physician contact and Pap test coverage is affected by this surgery. We used data from the Manitoba Health Services Commission to construct health-services-use histories for the two years before and the two years after surgery for all women aged 25-44 who underwent tubal ligation in 1974 (n = 4,553) and for a comparison group of women who did not have the surgery (n = 5,161). Women visited physicians after surgery at the same rate as they had before surgery. However, the proportion of women receiving Pap tests fell in the years after surgery for the tubal ligation women but remained the same for the comparison group. The reasons for this decline in testing were a decline in the number of visits for gynecologic and obstetric reasons and a decline in testing because of high rates of "screening" prior to surgery. This study demonstrates both the importance of the one-time surgical event as an opportunity to offer Pap tests to women who might otherwise not visit physicians and the possibility of overtesting among some women.