Sexual and Reproductive Health Services, England (Contraception), 2025-26 [delayed from 15 October 2026 due to operational issues]

This part includes data on sterilisations and vasectomies taking place at SRH services and in NHS hospitals. NHS hospitals data is extracted from NHS England's Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). See part C of the Appendices for a full list of sterilisation and vasectomy HES procedure codes. 

A female sterilisation is an operation that necessitates a stay in hospital, and so all data relates to NHS hospitals.

Vasectomies may be performed as operations requiring a hospital stay, or as procedures in outpatient departments and SRH services clinics. Most are performed as day cases in hospital outpatient departments.

Sterilisation procedures by year (NHS Hospitals)

There were 9,801 sterilisations performed in NHS hospitals in 2025-26, an decrease of 9% on 2024-25 (10,793). The long-term trend is downwards, with the 2025-26 total 30% lower than ten years ago in 2015-16 (14,039).

Vasectomy procedures by year (SRH services and NHS Hospitals)

23,104 vasectomies were performed in 2025-26. This was 12% lower than in 2024-25 (26,385).

Please note that in 2023/24 a single nationwide provider (NTG: MSI Reproductive Choices) began submitting vasectomy procedure data and this caused the national count to increase by around 40%. This provider continues to contribute a significant amount of the vasectomy procedure national count. Data with and without this provider are shown in the chart below.

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For more information: Data tables 1 and 12