Venezuelan women seek sterilisations as crisis sours child-rearing

Medical personnel move a woman after her sterilization surgery in the operating room of a hospital in Caracas, Venezuela July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's food shortages, inflation and crumbling medical sector have become such a source of anguish that a growing number of young women are reluctantly opting for sterilisations rather than face the hardship of pregnancy and child-rearing.

Traditional contraceptives like condoms or birth control pills have virtually vanished from store shelves, pushing women towards the hard-to-reverse surgery.