| Abstract | | In an anonymous questionnaire it was aimed at estabishing whether among 289 women and 197 men having been sterilized at the University Gynaecological Department in Ljubljana from 1978 to 1982 there appears a feeling of regret for that act. Namely, a considerable amount of recent reports deal with the topic of "remorse, some authors maintaining that 1-15 per cent sterilized women regret for having taken this decision. By a simple questionnaire to which half the women and men gave answes, it has been found as follows: 1. For both women and men the sterilization meant a relief. 2. The feeling of "remorse" was observed in a smaller percentage (3.6 per cent in women and 0.9 per cent in men) than reported in the literature. 3. In both women and men, post-sterilization health difficulties are negligible. 4. In accordance with literature data, regret for having undergone sterilization was found mostly in women in whom this intervention was performed concurrently with the caesarean section or any other gynecological operation. These finding call for the organization of consultations and detailed explanations of the need of the additional intervention (sometimes including both partners) early enough and not immediately before the carrying out of the basic procedure, because the decision about the loss of reproductive capacity must indeed be well thought out and of one's own free will.
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