A “professional girlfriend” and Playboy cover star earns in an hour what she once made in a week. Katija Cortez, 30, who has also graced the front page of FHM magazine, jets between Singapore, Bali and the US.
She has now revealed that she has undergone voluntary sterilisation, choosing to permanently give up her ability to have children. The Sydney-based model said: “I’ve never wanted kids. Not someday. Not ‘maybe later’. Never.”
For Katija the decision wasn’t sudden or impulsive. It was the result of years of being on contraception, a traumatic medical experience, and she says a growing frustration with how women’s reproductive choices are policed, questioned and second-guessed.
She said: “I’m sharing this because women’s health and a woman’s right to choose not to have children just isn’t talked about enough. Especially when you’re single, and work in my industry.”
Before her life took a dramatic turn, Katija was living a far more conventional existence. She worked as an accountant, earning less than £600 a week and feeling deeply unfulfilled. “I hated it,” she said.
“I was miserable.” What began innocently, partying with younger men for extra cash, soon evolved into a full-time career when she shifted her focus to older, wealthier clients, and then the money followed.
Today, Katija manages her own schedule and lifestyle entirely on her terms. She shared: “After coffee, breakfast and the gym, my day could be anything. Beauty appointments, photoshoots, meeting clients, filming content. Or if I wake up and don’t want to do anything, I just watch TV, it’s an incredible life.”
However, despite the freedom her career affords, her reproductive health told a very different story. “My body was breaking down, and no one listened,” she said.
Katija had been on hormonal contraception since she was 16, spending more than a decade using the Implanon implant without issue, until last year. After having the rod replaced, she was suddenly hit with debilitating symptoms: insomnia, exhaustion, brain fog, intense food cravings, constant bleeding and an inability to function normally.
“For two months, doctors ran tests and found nothing,” she said. “Not once did anyone suggest my contraception could be causing it.”
When she finally requested the implant be removed, she said she was dismissed, gaslit and left traumatised by what should have been a routine procedure. What was meant to be a five-minute removal turned into a two-hour ordeal, leaving her arm scarred from the drip and her confidence in the medical system shattered.
Katija recalled: “Within 24 hours of it being removed, every symptom disappeared. That’s when I knew, I was never putting my body through this again. I was done with contraception forever.”
At 29, Katija decided she wanted a permanent solution. She had never wanted children, and after years of hormonal interference, she felt certain. Nevertheless certainty, she quickly learned, didn’t make the process easy.
Friends were supportive, but sceptical. She said: “Everyone said, ‘Good luck finding a doctor who’ll agree’. I thought, why would this be hard? I’m 30, not 20.”
She didn’t even have a gynaecologist, having never needed one before. Her GP supported her, but also cautious.
“He said I’d struggle because I was young, unmarried and had no kids,” she said. Then came the question she would hear again and again: What if you meet a man who wants children?
“That question infuriates me,” she said. “I’ve always known what I want, I don’t date men who want kids.
“It’s a first-date question for me.” What followed was a deep dive into online forums and conversations with other women, and a disturbing discovery.
Countless women, including married mums, had been refused sterilisation. Some were told they might change their minds.
Others were asked for partner permission, and some were required to undergo psychological evaluations. Katija revealed: “The resistance isn’t about what women want.
“It’s about doctors protecting themselves from lawsuits.” Reversal procedures, she learned, are far from guaranteed, with success rates as low as 50–70 per cent, and many women later sue when reversals fail.
“It’s built on the assumption we’ll regret it,” she said. “Not on trusting us.”
After months of waiting, evaluations and second opinions, Katija finally received approval. On the day of surgery, she made one last change, opting to have her fallopian tubes fully removed rather than tied, following advice from other women online.
“I just didn’t feel safe with them tied,” she said. “I wanted certainty.”
Now, post-surgery, recovery hasn’t been easy. Katija admitted: “I’m tired, sore, crampy, and it definitely feels like I’ve had something done.
“But I don’t regret it for a second.” Katija has never shied away from challenging societal norms, especially around dating and sex work.
“Men who date spicy workers have confidence on another level,” she said. “We know exactly what’s out there. If we choose you, it’s because you offer something rare.”
For her, sterilisation isn’t about rejecting family or femininity, it’s about autonomy. “This was about taking my body back,” said Katija, who is sharing her experiences on TikTok. And if the internet has taught her anything?
She said: “If even one woman feels less alone because I shared this then it was worth it.”
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.