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 sterilizations 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. While no recent national statistics on sterilizations are available, doctors and health workers say demand for the procedure is growing. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

(L-R) Maria Silva, Milena Cortes, Maria Arteaga, Jackeline Bastidas and Gissy Abello pose for a picture at the Famproa dogs shelter where they work, in Los Teques, Venezuela, August 25, 2016. Venezuelans struggling to feed their families let alone their pets are dumping animals on the streets, in parks and at makeshift homes overrun with scrawny animals amid an economic crisis. An hour from Caracas in Los Teques, hundreds of dogs bark and run around the streets scavenging for food outside a makeshift shelter. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

UK Love Island’s star Maura Higgins, 30, stuns as she poses in revealing outfits in her latest photoshoot with brand Ego in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in April 2021. (Photo by EGO)

A woman holds a skull during a “Dia de los natitas” (Day of the Skull) ceremony at the Cementerio General of La Paz. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

A woman walks the grounds in costume as revellers celebrate Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, on October 28, 2023. Every year on the last Saturday before November 2nd, Hollywood Forever Cemetery welcomes members of the community to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, which reunites and honors beloved ancestors, family, and friends. (Photo by David Swanson/AFP Photo)

A person eats an early Thanksgiving meal served to the homeless at the Los Angeles Mission in Los Angeles, California, November 25, 2015. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Spectators using virtual reality glasses at the “Los Ultimos Dias De Pompeia” Exhibition at Matadero on September 06, 2023 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images)