So, as some of you know, my husband and I have been trying unsuccessfully for years to get a doctor to sterilize one of us. I have health issues that make pregnancy unsafe for me, and we have known since we got married 12 years ago that we absolutely and unequivocally did not want to be parents. We are told, even now, that we don't know what we want and will change our minds, and are constantly patronized.

Meanwhile in reproductive medicine, people who elect to have children seem to be rarely questioned and patronized like those who don't want kids. People much younger than me are able to get approved for fertility treatments (which I am NOT knocking- I think that the fact that modern medicine can help people who want children have them is amazing,) but I can't, at 31, get my tubes tied.

Has anyone from either side noticed a trend? A person who wants a child is rarely questioned (it seems) by the medical establishment, so shouldn't people who don't want to be parents be offered the same courtesy and respect?

We know we don't want to be parents as I am sure many people who do want kids know that they do want them.