Objectives To study characteristics of psychosomatic symptoms related to sterilization, to find out risk factors and their roles ascribed to psychosomatic symptoms, and to establish a mathematic model for screening out susceptible women. Methods: This study enrolled 776 women in rural area at three counties of Linxiang, Qiyang, Changsha of Hunan province in China between February 1990 and April 1992. Brief Neurosis Screening Scale (BNSS), Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), sensitivity to pain, suggestibility were used to indicate subjects’ psychological status. Logistic regression model and retrograde discriminant analysis were applied to develop a mathematical model. Results: Prevalence of psychosomatic reactions or symptoms was 54.8% before sterilization, 26.6% at three months and 16.4% at one year after operation respectively. Psychosomatic symptoms were verified to be the result of joint effects of multiple risk factors. The following risk factors were associated with postoperative symptoms: anger-hostility (RR=33.71), high suggestibility (RR=4.53), high neuroticism (RR=3.44), sensitivity to pain (RR=2.14) and operative sites (RR=2.05). A mathematical model to estimate the probability of developing psychosomatic symptoms in sterilization was established.Conclusions: More than half of women suffered from psychosomatic reactions before operation, and some of them did not recover after operation. The postoperative psychosomatic symptoms are the joint effect of multiple risk factors. Objectives To study characteristics of psychosomatic symptoms related to sterilization, to find out risk factors and their roles ascribed to psychosomatic symptoms, and to establish a mathematic model for screening out susceptible women. Methods: This study enrolled 776 women in rural area at three counties of Linxiang, Qiyang, Changsha of Hunan province in China between February 1990 and April 1992. Brief Neurosis Screening Scale (BNSS), Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), sensitivity to pain, suggestibility were used to indicate subjects’ psychological status. Logistic regression model and retrograde discriminant analysis were applied to develop a mathematical model. Results: Prevalence of psychosomatic reactions or symptoms was 54.8% before sterilization, 26.6% at three months and 16.4% at one year after operation respectively. Psychosomatic symptoms were verified to be the result of joint effects of multiple risk factors. The following risk factors were associated with postoperati A pattern of anger-hostility (RR = 33.71), high suggestibility (RR = 4.53), high neuroticism (RR = 3.44), sensitivity to pain the probability of developing psychosomatic symptoms in sterilization was established. Conclusions: More than half of women suffered from psychosomatic reactions before operation, and some of them did not recover after operation. The postoperative psychosomatic symptoms are the joint effect of multiple risk factors.