Parents of women with severe disabilities are being forced to take their daughters overseas for hysterectomies after their requests for the procedure were denied in Australia, a leading endocrinologist has told an inquiry into involuntary sterilisation.

John Carter, the father of a 31-year-old daughter with a moderately severe intellectual disability, said laws on sterilisation can place an unfair burden on people with disability and their families.

''We are aware of instances where parents have taken their daughters to Thailand or New Zealand to have a hysterectomy because their request to have a hysterectomy performed in Australia was rejected by the Guardianship Tribunal,'' he wrote in his submission to the Senate inquiry into involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia.

''For a country that is allegedly as caring and compassionate as Australia, to have citizens undertaking such trips strongly suggests that the current situation is far from ideal and we believe that significantly greater flexibility needs to be demonstrated in our legal system and by bodies such as the Guardianship Tribunal when deliberating on applications.''

Dr Carter and his family appeared at the inquiry's public hearings in Sydney on Wednesday.