Objective To evaluate whether women referred to a gynaecology clinic requesting sterilisation were receiving appropriate counselling about sterilisation and other forms of long-term contraception, and to determine the proportion of women who ultimately underwent sterilisation.

Methods A retrospective audit of 100 women referred requesting sterilisation.

Results 15% of women referred did not attend the clinic, 54% had sterilisation and 29% ultimately chose an alternative method. Alternative forms of contraception discussed were levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (69%), vasectomy (34%) and subdermal progestogen implants (21%). At the clinic 70 (82%) women chose sterilisation; however, 15 (21%) of these women cancelled the operation.

Conclusions Almost half of the women referred for sterilisation did not proceed with it, suggesting that there was insufficient counselling about sterilisation and alternative long-term contraception before referral to the gynaecology clinic and also within the clinic itself.