CONTENTS
HIGHLIGHTS
October, 1998 Series J, Number 46 |
Men generally approve of family planning, according to DHS and other surveys. The level of approval, however, varies from country to country and by men's residential, socioeconomic, and educational status (76, 196, 213). In 8 of 12 countries with available DHS of men, 70% of men or more approve of contraceptive use (see Table 2). In six of these countries, 90% or more approve. Approval is lowest in West African countries, except in Ghana. Other studies also find that men generally favor family planning (30, 183, 232, 238). Urban men are more likely than rural men to approve of family planning. The difference is substantial only in a few surveys, however, particularly in Cameroon and Senegal. Also, somewhat higher percentages of younger men tend to approve of family planning than older men do. In almost all countries men with more schooling are more likely to approve of family planning. The influence of education is most striking in Cameroon, where only 20% of men with no education approve of family planning, but 75% of men with secondary or higher education approve. Although men's approval rates are high, they are usually lower than women's. For example, in Senegal 72% of women approve compared with 52% of men (76). In Malawi and Pakistan, however, men are more likely than women to approve of family planning. In Pakistan men's approval rates are higher than the approval rates of women by more than 10 percentage points. Most men surveyed think they should share responsibility for family planning with their wives. Many men may be constrained from exercising this responsibility, however, because the choice of male contraceptive methods is so limited. If men had more contraceptive methods to choose from, they might be more positively involved in family planning (204) (see New Methods in Chapter 1.3). In the US, for example, a 1997 survey found that about 70% of men agreed that men should share more responsibility for choosing and using contraception. Some 66% said that they would be willing to try a hormonal oral contraceptive, and 36% would consider a hormonal implant, if these methods became available for men (111). Whether in fact men would use a male hormonal method or whether women would trust men to use a hormonal method correctly and consistently remains to be seen (205). |