In a first aspect of the invention, a medical sterile container has a container interior for accommodating articles to be sterilized. The medical sterile container comprises a pressure-activatable sterilization status detection device for detecting a sterilization status of the sterile container. In a second aspect of the invention, a method for determining the sterilization status of a medical sterile container having a container interior for accommodating articles to be sterilized is provided. While the sterile container is undergoing a sterilization process in a sterilization apparatus, pressure differences to which the sterile container is thereby subjected are detected, and the sterilization status sterile is allocated to the sterile container if during the sterilization process a limit value for a pressure gradient per time unit is exceeded.