Another non-sexist part of the reason for a difference in how men and women are considered as candidates for surgical sterilization could be the nature of the procedure. For men it’s a relatively straightforward in-office procedure, with low complications and risk. For women it’s still pretty low risk and relatively straightforward, but it’s major abdominal surgery and done in a hospital/surgical center. Post-Surgical complications can be higher as well.
So the request to sterilize a patient carries greater costs/complexity/risk for both the surgeon and patient for a woman than it does for a man. When you consider that it’s elective surgery, that could be part of why it’s harder to get for a woman than a man.
Historical note: Rick Perry, former Texas Governor & future head of Some Department Whose Name Has Slipped My Mind, had a vasectomy after fathering two children. His father-in-law performed the procedure…
My spouse had a vasectomy at 23. As soon as we started getting serious, I told him in no uncertain terms that I didn’t want kids and would not have them. That meant if he was okay with that and still wanted to get married, one or the other of us would have to get snipped. Of course I offered for it to be me (since I was the most adamant about it) but he said no, he didn’t want kids either and it was easier and cheaper for him to do it. I asked him if he was sure several times over the next few weeks and he insisted he was. So we went to Planned Parenthood and had it done. Aside from a few questions to ensure he was serious, there was no problem. No permissions required. I was there with him during the procedure (though I didn’t watch what was going on “down there”).
We got married shortly after and just had our 28th (still childfree) anniversary, so I guess it was the right decision.