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)

Guests brew coffee during a wedding ceremony for a Free Syrian Army fighter in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

Clouds gather as walkers pause atop a ridge in Mountain View, California January 7, 2016. (Photo by Noah Berger/Reuters)

A woman dressed as a character from the computer game “World of Warcraft” stands in a forest near the village of Sosnova, Czech Republic, April 30, 2016. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

An injured girl reacts at a site hit by an airstrike in the rebel-held Douma neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria November 7, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

Youth category winner: Symphony No 5 by Giacomo Redaelli (Italy). (Photo by Giacomo Redaelli/2019 Nature Photographer of the Year)

A bus goes through a flooded area in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, China, June 19, 2016. A week of torrential rain in southern China has killed dozens of people and forced relocation of tens of thousands of residents, media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Elio Angulo (bottom C) lies inside a cardboard coffin next to Alejandro Blanchard as they introduce their product to potential customers at a mortuary in Valencia, in the state of Carabobo, Venezuela August 25, 2016. When Venezuelan entrepreneurs Alejandro Blanchard and Elio Angulo decided to create cardboard coffins, they were looking for an ecological selling point to compete against classic wood and brass caskets. Three years on, with the oil-rich country mired in deep economic crisis, their “bio-coffins” are becoming a viable option because of high prices for wooden coffins and shortages of brass ones. (Photo by Marco Bello/Reuters)