Holly Brockwell on her decision to be sterilised in her twenties: 'You can just not want kids'

HOLLY BROCKWELL ON BEING STERILISED AT 30 YEARS OLD

We were joined by Holly and her boyfriend Zack to talk about her decision to be sterilised.

‘At 16 you’re allowed to say you want to bring a child into the world and that’s a bigger decision because it affects you and the parent and the child and society,' Holly said. 'So I feel at 16 if you’re old enough to say that why not say the opposite?'

'Everyone thinks they're going to have kids. As I got older and the more I got into serious relationships [...] I thought, "I don't feel good about this, I don't want this",' Holly explained. 'There are deep seated reasons but it’s a bit disingenuous to other women who don’t want kids to say it’s because x, y, z but you can just not want kids because you don’t want kids.'

After deciding she never wanted children when she was 26, and suffering horrendous side effects from being on the pill and trying various forms of contraception, Holly battled for four years to have the surgery.

'They thought I'd walked in off the street like, "I want to get my tubes tied",' Holly said. 'But I'd researched it a lot. They have to make sure you're so certain. Which is fair.'

'On the face of it it looks like unnecessary surgery and the NHS is stretched but if you look at maths behind how much it would have cost them to keep me on the pill the rest of my fertile life, it would have been a lot higher.'

'The NHS is better off for having done it – and that’s putting aside the money seeing me for side effects, or potential abortions.'

She was eventually granted permission to have the operation when she was 30 years old and was fully supported by boyfriend Zack who added, 'I've never wanted children. It's never been part of my life plan either.'

Watch the video to see the full interview with Holly and Zack.