N.C.'s sterilization surge
Plus: American's airport lounges raise prices while adding food and booze; Will Dashew run again for CMS board?; Atrium CEO plays electric guitar at big music festival; The return of Phat Burrito
Good morning! Today is Monday, July 17, 2023. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
Need to subscribe — or upgrade your Ledger e-newsletter subscription? Details here.
Today's Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by T.R. Lawing Realty:
Some doctors say new abortion restrictions are driving N.C. women to seek sterilization in their 20s and 30s; Vasectomies, IUDs also gaining popularity
28-year-old Katie, of Concord, holds up one of her favorite shirts on the morning of her sterilization surgery last week. Some doctors say patients are increasingly requesting to be sterilized after new abortion restrictions.
By Michelle Crouch
Co-published with N.C. Health News
For years, Katie and her husband have used traditional forms of birth control to prevent pregnancy. The 28-year-old knew that if it failed, she could always get an abortion.
The Concord woman explained that she has never wanted children. She also takes medication that could cause complications if she were to get pregnant.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, Katie — who declined to share her last name to protect her privacy — began to think she needed more protection. Then, this spring, North Carolina lawmakers approved a 12-week restriction on abortions, and that confirmed Katie’s decision.
She had her fallopian tubes removed last week by a Charlotte doctor.
“People may say, ‘What if you regret it?’ But I think it’s a far greater risk to have children and regret having them,” Katie said. “I would never want to bring someone into the world and then resent them.”
Katie is among a growing number of women in North Carolina choosing permanent sterilization in the wake of new abortion restrictions, four doctors told The Ledger/NC Health News.
The doctors noted that a large number of patients, like Katie, are younger than 30 and child-free.
“In the past year, I’ve had at least 50% more consultations than I did before,” said Jennie Hauschka, a gynecologist at Tryon Women’s Center in Charlotte, a division of Tryon Medical Partners. “Abortion is referenced as an aside. They’ll say, ‘If something were to happen, I don’t have that to fall back on anymore.’”
Sterilizations doubled at one UNC Health practice
Amy Bryant, an obstetrician-gynecologist at UNC Health, said the number of sterilization procedures performed by her OB-GYN group has doubled during the past year.
While many patients are young people who don’t want children, other patients are spurred by the fear that lawmakers will impose more restrictions on contraception, or that they won’t be able to have a say in what happens to them, Bryant said.
“The fear is real,” Bryant said. “Patients are expressing the need to exercise autonomy over their own bodies.”
Even before the abortion restrictions, a growing number of U.S. adults were choosing not to have children. A 2019 report by the Pew Research Center found that some 44% of adults age 18 to 49 said it’s “not too likely” or “not at all likely” that they’ll have kids one day, a 7 percentage point increase from 2018.
Kavita Arora, division director for general obstetrics, gynecology and midwifery at the UNC School of Medicine, said patients have told her they “feel like they no longer have wiggle room, that the margin of error is gone.”
“I do worry that patients are being pushed into a permanent surgery they would not otherwise be considering outside of state law,” Arora said.
Atrium Health declined to allow its doctors be interviewed for this article even though three physicians said they were willing to talk to a reporter. “We are not doing interviews right now because it’s too early to know the effects of the law,” a spokeswoman wrote in an email.
A Novant Health spokeswoman said the doctors she contacted haven’t seen an increase in requests for sterilization.
The Ledger/NC Health News talked to one doctor who said she hadn’t seen an increase. She also said her practice consists largely of older patients.
Not just in North Carolina
Concrete statistics are hard to come by, but the doctors interviewed by The Ledger/NC Health News said they talk frequently with other North Carolina OB-GYNs, and they believe sterilizations are up across the state.
Doctors across the country have seen a similar trend since the Supreme Court decision, according to reporting by national media outlets.
The week after the ruling, web searches for terms such as “tubal ligation” and “tubes tied” tripled, both in North Carolina and nationwide, according to Google data.
There has also been a spike of interest on social media. For instance, over the past year, a Facebook group called “Childfree and sterile/seeking sterilization” has grown from 4,700 members to more than 7,400, a moderator told The Ledger/NC Health News.
‘Put an IUD in my daughter’
In addition to sterilization, some doctors say the abortion changes have prompted more patients to consider long-acting forms of contraception such as IUDs, which have to be inserted by a health care provider. They are less likely to fail than other types of birth control.
Alyse Kelly-Jones, a gynecologist at Tryon Women’s Center in Charlotte, said she has seen a “definite uptick” in the number of women requesting IUDs, with some patients specifically referencing the current political climate. Others are trying to protect their children.
“I’ve had some moms bringing in their teenage daughters who aren’t even ready for contraception saying, ‘Put an IUD in my daughter,’” Kelly-Jones said.
Men also getting snipped
Men apparently are also taking additional steps to protect against unplanned pregnancies. Like urologists nationwide, Manish Damani of Urology Specialists of The Carolinas in Charlotte said requests for vasectomies have surged.
Damani has also seen a dramatic shift in his patient demographics over the past year.
“Before, I would see mostly men 30 and above who wanted vasectomies,” he said. “Now, about half are aged 18 to 25 and have no children. It’s amazing what we’re seeing now. I’ve literally had a lot of them come in with their parents.”
Damani said many men ask if they can do a reversal down the road. He tells them there’s no guarantee, but that his reversal success rate is 82% to 99%, depending largely on how long it’s been since the patient’s vasectomy.
When women choose to get sterilized, however, reversal is rarely an option.
The standard female sterilization procedure is called a salpingectomy, which is the removal of the fallopian tubes that connect ovaries to the uterus. The procedure has a lower chance of failure compared with a traditional tubal ligation (getting your “tubes tied”) and reduces ovarian cancer risk. But it can’t be reversed.
Some doctors turn down young people
Because it’s permanent, some doctors are reluctant to do salpingectomies in patients under a certain age. Hauschka and Bryant both said they’ve had patients who have been to other doctors who wouldn’t do the procedure.
Some physicians worry that young people may jump on the “child-free” bandwagon without taking into account how much their lives could change in the coming decades.
One 1999 study found patients sterilized before age 30 were more than three times as likely to have regret than patients older than 30. However, women under 30 who never had children had significantly lower rates of regret than those who had had children already, the study showed.
Doctors who do the sterilizations said they have to walk a fine line. They want to ensure that their patients understand the risks and consequences of their decision, including the risk of regret, while still allowing patients to have autonomy over their bodies.
Armed with a ‘sterilization binder’
Katie said she brought a “sterilization binder” to her first appointment to talk about the procedure. It was an idea recommended by a social media group for child-free young people pursuing sterilization.
Katie’s binder included a statement of consent, her views on pregnancy and parenthood, a release of liability and her answers to questions the doctor might ask. “I had about 20 pages that said, ‘I understand the risk, I understand I might change my mind, I understand this is permanent and I won’t hold you liable,’” Katie said.
Katie said her doctor said she didn’t need to look at the binder after talking with Katie, and the surgery happened last Thursday. On Friday, Katie said the procedure went smoothly and she was recovering at home.
“I’m happy it all went well, and having it over is such a relief,” she said. “This is me protecting myself, and I don’t have to worry about pregnancy anymore.”
Michelle Crouch covers health care. If you have tips or ideas for her, please shoot her an email at mcrouch@northcarolinahealthnews.org.
This article is part of a partnership between The Ledger and North Carolina Health News to produce original health care reporting focused on the Charlotte area. For more information, or to support this effort with a tax-free gift, click here.
Today’s supporting sponsor is Landon A. Dunn, attorney-at-law in Matthews:
American and Citi raise price to get into swanky Admirals Clubs at the airport — but more food and booze, too
American Airlines is raising the cost of entry to its airport lounges — and the annual fee on the credit that can get you into those refuges is going up, too.
American said last week that the cost of an Admirals Club membership is rising effective July 23 to as much as $850 a year, up from a ceiling of $650 a year currently (it can be less, for hardcore frequent fliers). And at the same time, Citi said that the annual fee on its Citi/AAdvantage Executive card — which grants access to the clubs — is going to $595, up from $450.
But it’s not all bad news: The credit card is adding rebates on rental cars, Grubhub purchases and Lyft and is making it easier to earn points on flight purchases. And American is promising “a heartier variety of complimentary premium food with new hot and cold breakfast and all-day menus featuring regionally inspired selections.”
Additions are coming to the bar, too, starting this month, with “complimentary sparkling wine, craft beer that celebrates local favorites, and spirits like scotch and tequila … [and] complimentary cocktails like mimosas, Bloody Marys and signature cocktails created with local flavors.”
American has two Admirals Clubs in Charlotte, its second-largest hub. The city approved a design contract in March to renovate and expand the main club by concourses C, D and E. In addition, A Priority Pass lounge opened last year, and The Ledger has reported that Delta Air Lines is looking into a club here, too.
Related Ledger article:
“Airport’s main American lounge could double in size and move to second floor; Delta exploring airport club, too” (March 15)
Taking Stock, sponsored by Topsail Wealth Management
Topsail Wealth Management partners with you to provide personalized advice. Minimizing costs and the complexities of your wealth and investing plan.
How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
Atrium CEO pours his soul into summer music festival in Milwaukee; plays electric guitar with ‘a sound that’s all his own’
Atrium Health CEO Gene Woods says he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check an item off his bucket list — playing electric guitar at the music festival Summerfest in Milwaukee.
Woods and his band, Soul Alliance, performed an afternoon set late last month at Summerfest, which is one of the world’s largest music festivals.
Blender of funk: Summerfest said on its website: “With influences such as Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, and Taj Mahal — singer, songwriter, and musician Gene Woods blends funk, blues, and soul into a sound that’s all his own.” It said his band includes “an extremely talented group of musicians that have toured with the likes of James Brown, Prince and John Mayer” and noted that Woods “is the CEO of one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States.”
Woods said on his LinkedIn page that performing at Summerfest was a “bucket list opportunity” and added: “What I have always appreciated most about music is the amazing power it has to bring people together from all walks of life and transcend differences. That is exactly what I saw at Summerfest — people coming together in community, which is what the world needs more of these days.”
Woods previously released a music video in September 2020 to a song he wrote in his youth called “Not Enuff Joy.” The Ledger reported at the time that in the video, “Woods plays an electric guitar and sings, and it features a flamenco dancer atop a parking deck, a 1970 Chevy Chevelle courtesy of Rick Hendrick, ensemble musicians performing at the Black Lives Matter street mural and Mayor Vi Lyles clapping and swaying to the music.”
In December, Atrium merged with Advocate Aurora Health, which coincidentally is a Summerfest sponsor. —TM
Related Ledger article:
“Loves me some internet: Gene Woods music video” (Sept. 30, 2020)
Election-filing intrigue: Will CMS’ school board chair seek another term?
With just a few days left for candidates to file for office for this November’s ballot, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board chair Elyse Dashew has not yet filed or said if she plans to run for re-election.
We noted last month that Dashew hasn’t posted on her campaign Facebook page since 2021, and the website she has used in previous elections, elysedashew.com, no longer works. Last year, voters ousted three of four board members who were running for re-election.
Asked by email last week whether she plans to run again, Dashew told The Ledger she would let us know “soon.” The filing period ends Friday at noon — so all of us should know soon.
The election is Nov. 8, and there is no primary for school board. Also on the ballot: Charlotte City Council and a mayor’s race — which will have primaries — as well as elections in Mecklenburg’s towns and a big school bond.
Other candidates who have filed for the three at-large seats on the school board are incumbent Lenora Shipp and newcomers Bill Fountain, Juanrique Pallamente Hall, Omar Harris, Shamaiye Haynes and Liz Monterrey. Incumbent Jennifer De La Jara has said she is not running. —TM
You might be interested in these Charlotte events: Queen’s Feast deals; Regional Transportation Summit
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
JULY 21-30: Queen’s Feast: Charlotte Restaurant Week®, 90+ restaurants in 9 counties. Spice up your summer with new flavors during Queen’s Feast, July 21-30, as 90+ restaurants in 9 counties around the metro area showcase their cuisine with 3-course, prix fixe specials at dinner. View menus and make reservations at CharlotteRestaurantWeek.com. $30-$50 depending on the restaurant.
SEPTEMBER 11: Regional Transportation Summit, 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m., Ballantyne hotel. Come hear from federal, state and municipal leaders about one of the keys to economic development and quality of life in the Charlotte area: transportation and mobility. South Charlotte Partners once again brings together stakeholders to discuss the current status and future direction for transportation and mobility in the region. $100.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
In brief:
BofA executive Cathy Bessant to retire: Bank of America executive Cathy Bessant, a veteran of over 40 years with the bank, will retire at the end of the year. Bessant has held various roles within the organization, including chief operations and technology officer, and has been involved in civic leadership projects in Charlotte. After her retirement, Bessant plans to focus on issue-based efforts that have been significant to her career. (Observer)
Tim Moore says it’s his final term as speaker: House Speaker Tim Moore has announced that he will not seek re-election as speaker in the term starting in 2025, according to Rep. Jason Saine. Saine said Moore made the announcement to the House GOP caucus. Moore’s office confirmed his decision and stated that he is currently considering his future plans, which may include a potential run for Congress. His office said Moore had been telling colleagues for months that he would not seek a leadership position again, even before affair allegations surfaced in a recent lawsuit. (Observer)
Rail car company to relocate HQ to Charlotte: Chicago-based rail and freight management company TTX Co. is relocating its headquarters to Charlotte, creating 150 jobs. The company will invest $14.5M in the move and will lease 70,000 s.f. of office space in an undetermined location. (WSOC)
New name for CTE: Charlotte-based construction equipment supplier CTE is changing its name to Weisiger Group, the company said. “This new name was selected to honor the company's nearly 100-year history as a trailblazing, family-owned organization, with distinguished brands like Carolina Cat and LiftOne,” the company said in a news release. It is one of the Southeast’s top equipment providers and is #18 on the Charlotte Business Journal’s 2022 list of the largest private companies based in the Charlotte area.
CMS adds more Title I schools: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced that 102 schools in the district will receive Title I funding this year, indicating more schools have poverty levels of 75% or higher for 2023-24. It’s an increase of about 10 schools compared with the previous year. (Observer)
Cartoonist shown the door: The Charlotte Observer is parting ways with its Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Kevin Siers — part of a larger strategy by parent company McClatchy and the newspaper industry to move away from daily editorial cartoons. The company said the decision was based on “changing reader habits and our relentless focus on providing the communities we serve with local news and information they can’t get elsewhere.” (Ledger online)
Hot new nonstop from CLT: American Airlines announced a new destination from Charlotte: the “Quad Cities” — a region that describes southeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. Two daily nonstops will start in December.
Tattoo specialty: A tattoo artist with a studio off Central Avenue has developed an unusual niche: specializing in “custom breast adornment, areola renewal and 3D nipple tattoos,” especially for breast cancer survivors and transgender clients. “Whether it’s through realistic 3D nipples of your choice or decorative adornment, honoring and embodying your truth by getting tattooed is a meaningful and transformative personal rite of passage,” said Hayley Moran of Haylo Healing Arts Lounge. (Queen City Nerve)
The return of Phat Burrito: A Charlotte real estate developer has bought the trademark and recipes of Phat Burrito, an unpretentious South End restaurant that closed in 2017, and plans to open a restaurant under that name in lower South End, or “LoSo,” in August. “We’re trying really hard to give people what they loved and remembered,” Michael Cox said. (Biz Journal, subscriber-only)
Need to sign up for this e-newsletter? We offer a free version, as well as paid memberships for full access to all 4 of our local newsletters:
➡️ Learn more about The Charlotte Ledger
The Charlotte Ledger is a locally owned media company that delivers smart and essential news through e-newsletters and on a website. We strive for fairness and accuracy and will correct all known errors. The content reflects the independent editorial judgment of The Charlotte Ledger. Any advertising, paid marketing, or sponsored content will be clearly labeled.
Like what we are doing? Feel free to forward this along and to tell a friend.
Sponsorship information/customer service: email support@cltledger.com.
Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks