ANGELA Offen began to sob as she sifted through her research papers.

Only a few weeks earlier the 33-year-old had been sterilised.

But her tears were not of regret - just tears of relief after years of being refused the operation by successive GPs.

"I feel triumphant and liberated," said Angela on Monday.

"Finally I am who I want to be."

Since childhood Angela, an artist who specialises in animal portraits, has never wanted children.

And while other girls talked about settling down and starting a family, Angela was content playing with her pet cats or reading a book.

"I wasn't a spoilt child. I was just very stable and level-headed," she said.

"Contrary to what some presume, I came from a family that was like the Darling Buds of May."

Angela first asked about the operation when she was 21 - shortly after she wed her husband Bill.

"The doctor laughed at me and told me to go away, saying I would soon change my mind," she said.

"I was infuriated that I wasn't being taken seriously."

For the next 12 years Angela tried various forms of contraception and discussed a vasectomy with Bill, who is 18 years her senior.

"A vasectomy would have fitted our relationship, but Bill is a lot older than me and it would not have solved anything if I met someone else," she said.

Angela became increasingly anxious that she would become pregnant and would have kept the baby if she had conceived.

"I would have had the child but it wouldn't have been by choice," she said.

But she doesn't underestimate the importance of parenting - Bill has adult children from a previous marriage.

And the couple are close to Angela's sister, Susan, a mum-of-two young girls. "I can sympathise with mothers even if I can't empathise with them," she said.

"I don't question their reasons for having children so why should they question my decision not to have children."

Eventually a female GP took Angela's wishes seriously and referred her to a Macclesfield Hospital consultant.

"It was very interesting that she was a young woman who had children herself but could see things from another point of view," said Angela, of Dixon Drive, Chelford.

The operation which clips both the fallopian tubes is done through keyhole surgery and takes about 10 minutes.

Angela, Bill's third wife, says opting for the permanent procedure was her choice - not her husband's.

"It is my choice and I will live with it," she said.

She also has her parents' support. "They don't see it as my job to provide them with grandchildren," she said.

Angela is now researching a book about women who choose not to have children.

"One in five women now do not have children and I want to examine their experiences," she said.

"I am fed up with people condemning these women as strange."

Since the operation Angela can sit back and enjoy her happy marriage and the peace and quiet of her comfortable bungalow.

"For me the best aphrodisiac is the lack of worry," she said.

"I have recognised who I am and have no regrets."

This week, 33-year-old childless Angela Offen talks frankly about her decision to be sterilised. The operation was also filmed by the BBC and will be shown with a discussion about sterilisation on Heart of the Matter at 11.15pm on Sunday

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