Male Involvement
F. Terzioglu
Hacettepe University, School of Nursing, Women Health
Department, Ankara, Turkey
The primary reason for male involvement in family planning is
that the current approach of focusing all family planning attention on women is
not working. Unwanted pregnancy continues to increase despite the advent of the
oral contraceptive and the IUD and despite the great amount of money and effort
that have been invested in making women better contraceptors. Whether or not a
contraceptive is effectively used depends a lot on the attitude of the man. The
great majority of the studies conducted on male attitudes toward contraception
indicate that boys and men are interested in the subject.
The failure of family planning programs to acknowledge the
crucial role played by men in the contraceptive decision-making process may be
responsible, in part, for stagnant contraceptive prevalence rates in some parts
of the world. The development of new, reversible male methods of fertility
control with adequate acceptability levels represents a major challenge in the
field of reproductive health. Indeed, fertility levels dropped during the
periods of greatest male involvement and practically no female involvement in
reproductive decision making. Male involvement in family planning and use of
male methods are associated with the fertility decline and resulted in long-term
benefits for women. Traditional notions about gender roles and family, in
addition to economic concerns, shaped fertility decision making. Individual
motivation rather than choice of methods was more important for positive male
participation in family planning.
Only recently have family-planning associations recognized the
importance of men’s role and motivation in fertility decision making. But now
that this has been recognized, the question is “what can family-planning
and reproductive-health programs do to encourage men’s cooperation?” Thus,
various strategies are implemented to increase men’s awareness of reproductive
health and the accessibility of products and services.
These strategies include:
1) increasing contraceptive options for men;
2) supporting women’s contraceptive use;
3) improving sexual behavior and safe sex practices;
4) narrowing the gender gap for better fertility control.
Moreover, extensive research is required in order to understand
men’s perceptions and needs about fertility regulation and sexual behavior as
well as services development.
As a result; “male involvement” should be understood
in a much broader sense than male contraception, and should refer to all
organizational activities aimed at men as a discrete group which have the
objective of increasing the acceptability and prevalence of family-planning
practice of either sex. Session of the Contraception and Reproductive Health
Society of Turkey Contraception usage in Turkey