Equity-Centered Sterilization Counseling: Evidence, Consent, and Practical Pearls

Webinar Description:

This webinar will explore strategies for providing informed, compassionate, and patient-centered counseling to individuals considering sterilization. Presenters will discuss how to support autonomy and informed decision-making within the context of clinical, ethical, and policy considerations. Participants will gain insight into current evidence, communication approaches, and referral pathways that promote equitable access to sterilization and related reproductive health services.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Balance patient-centered care with federal consent requirements.
  2. Recognize historical and ongoing injustices in reproductive health.
  3. Apply reproductive justice principles to patient-centered contraceptive counseling and care.
  4. Compare the safety and effectiveness of surgical contraception, vasectomy, and long-acting reversible contraception methods.
  5. Identify best practices for referrals and explore options for procedural training.

Presenters:

  • Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, MD, MS (She/Her)
    • Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital
    • Previously served as a Senior Medical Expert for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Advisory Committee on Reproductive Health Drugs
    • Medical Consultant for the California Department of Health Care Services, Office of Family Planning from 2014-2016
  • Lindsey M. Wilder-Piper, MSN, WHNP-BC, SAFE-A, CNM-s (She/They)
    • Sexual and reproductive health nurse practitioner
    • Trains providers and sees patients in Massachusetts at Health Quarters, in New Hampshire at the Joan G. Lovering Health Center, and in Maine at the local federally qualified health centers
  • Finn Wilder-Piper, MSN, FNP-BC (They/Them)
    • An out, loud, and visibly queer nonbinary nurse practitioner
    • Provides comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, gender-affirming care, and abortion care in Midcoast Maine, as well as via telehealth
    • Approaches care and education from a background in reproductive and social justice, with the goal of increasing access to competent, equitable, compassionate care for all

Webinar Resources:

Sterilization Resources:

Vasectomy Sample Forms: