It is a decision that is sometimes met with doubt by friends and family, and even in doctors' surgeries: Young people who want to get sterilized before the age of 30 because they know they don't want to have children.

At the age of 26, Noé Vaccari is waiting to get a vasectomy, a surgical procedure blocking the ducts through which sperm can circulate. After several setbacks with doctors reluctant to accept the operation, deeming him too young to make the (in most cases irreversible) choice, he finally joined a urologist's waiting list. The specialist wanted him to freeze some of his sperm, just in case. But Noé, who for years has been certain that he will never want a child, was not interested. "You have to be constantly prepared to state your case," he said.

In recent years, the topic of early sterilization has come to the fore as young people draw attention to the difficulty of finding a doctor willing to allow them to undergo the procedure before the age of 30. Sterilization for contraceptive purposes has been legal for all adults since 2001, but doctors have the right to invoke a conscience clause, provided they refer them to another practitioner – a rule that is not always respected.

Séphora Manuel got a tubal ligation at the age of 24, four years ago. To get around the problem of being turned down by her doctor, she turned to Facebook groups, where people share the names of doctors willing to do the procedure. "I was lucky enough to be able to travel to another town. But it still says a lot about the desire to control women's bodies," she said indignantly.

'Growing demand'

Benoît Morin, an obstetric gynecologist in Strasbourg who performs these sterilization procedures, knows that his name appears on some of these lists. The women who come to see him, however, are now mostly referred by their general practitioners, medical gynecologists or midwives, he said. He sees this as a sign that a woman recognizing at an early stage that she does not want to have children, and consequently wishes to rid herself of the burden of contraception, "comes up against less and less resistance."

As a urological surgeon at a private clinic in Lyon, Jonas Wilisch has noticed a "growing demand" for vasectomies in all age groups. "We are seeing an increase of around 30% in requests every year: a sign of a growing desire, but perhaps above all of greater awareness that this solution exists, with more public information," he said.

Wilisch is one of the doctors who are willing to perform the surgery on patients under the age of 30. He does, however, point out that the initial consultations with these patients are not conducted in quite the same way as with "a 45 year old with three children."

You have 30% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.