Sterilization (human, elective procedures)

Surgical sterilization procedures are operations designed to eliminate fertility. In people, these procedures involve disrupting the normal channels that mature gamete cells (ovum and sperm) use for transport to the uterus. In men, that means blocking the vas deferens, so that sperm cannot exit the body. In women, that blockage is placed in the fallopian tube so that ovum cannot reach th uterus. Although there is some success in reversing these procedures, that success is limited and, generally, these surgical means of contraception are permanent.

In animals, surgical sterilization ordinarily involves removal of the gonads such that the animal not only no longer produces gametes (ova or sperm) but that the animal no longer produces the normal sexual hormones of its kind. Although removal both testes in a man, and both ovaries in a woman does certainly cause sterility, these procedures are never done ethically to prevent reproduction, but instead, when performed, are done for treatment of disease.