• Summary
• Credits

1. Focus on Men
2. Contraceptive Use
3. Contraceptive Awareness and Approval
• Almost All Married Men Are Aware of Family Planning
• Radio and TV Family Planning Messages Reach Most Men
• Discussing Family Planning Is Important to Contraceptive Use
4. Fertility Preferences
5. Young Men

• Figures
• Tables
• Side-bars
• Bibliography

• Men overreport, and women under-report, condom use
• Why many men do not intend to use family planning
• Radio and TV messages reach more men than women
• Most men want to have more children than women do
• Sexually active young unmarried men at risk for HIV/AIDS

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• POPLINE

Contraceptive Awareness and Approval

Men are more likely than women to have heard of at least one contraceptive method—most often the condom—surveys show. Men’s awareness of female contraceptive methods, however, is almost always lower than that of women’s. Men also are more likely than women to be exposed to radio and television messages about family planning and are about as likely as women to approve of family planning messages in the mass media. While most married men approve of family planning, they are less likely to approve than married women in the same country.

Married couples increasingly are discussing family planning, surveys find. Communication between partners about childbearing and family planning is closely linked to successful contraceptive use (23, 25, 27, 40). Still, many wives do not know or misperceive their husbands’ attitudes toward family planning. Overall, more married men are likely to approve of family planning than women think.

In 36 of 46 surveyed countries, at least 90% of married men have heard of one or more contraceptive methods, either modern or traditional. In Mauritania, however, only 61% of married men have heard of at least one family planning method, and in Mozambique, 69%. In Chad and Pakistan about three-quarters of married men are aware of at least one contraceptive method. In the remaining six countries, levels of contraceptive awareness range from 80% to 89% (see Table 5).

Men are more likely to have heard of a modern method than a traditional one. In 34 countries at least 90% are aware of at least one modern method, while in only 7 countries have at least 90% heard of a traditional method (see Table 5).

In more than half of surveyed countries, including all but three sub-Saharan African countries surveyed, the male condom is the method that men most often recognize. Many married men also have heard of OCs. In only four surveyed countries—Albania, Central African Republic, Chad, and Mauritania—have less than half of married men heard about OCs.

Awareness of injectables ranges from just 16% of married men in Romania (reflecting the limited availability of injectables in Romania in the 1990s (30)) to over 90% in Bangladesh, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, and Nepal. In all surveyed countries more married men have heard of female sterilization than of male sterilization (see Table 5).

In the 21 countries outside sub-Saharan Africa with men’s surveys, levels of contraceptive awareness among both married men and women approach 100% for at least one method—except in Belize, Bolivia, Mauritania, and Pakistan, where levels for men range between 61% and 89%, and for women, between 71% and 92%. In 23 of the 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with men’s surveys, more married men than women have heard of at least one contraceptive method. Men are almost always less aware than women, however, of female contraceptive methods, including OCs, IUDs, and injectables (52).

Messages broadcast in the mass media are a key source of family planning information for men. Exposure to family planning messages on radio and television, as well as exposure to the mass media in general, can increase use of contraception and help change reproductive preferences (3, 8, 37, 49, 51). In over half of the 40 countries with data, at least half of men have heard family planning messages in the mass media, either radio, television, or both (see Table B). Family planning messages on radio and television reach more men than women, surveys find (52).

Most men approve of family planning messages in the mass media. In 30 of the 31 countries with data, more than half of men consider family planning messages acceptable in the mass media. Chad is the exception. In the Dominican Republic, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Nicaragua, Peru, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, over 90% find family planning messages acceptable (see Table B). In general, married men and women report similar levels of approval of family planning messages in the mass media (52).

The reach of family planning messages through the mass media appears to have grown in recent years, based on limited survey data. Among the eight countries with trend data on men’s exposure to family planning messages, the percentage of married men who said they had heard about family planning on radio or TV was higher in the more recent survey in all but Zimbabwe (see Figure 5 and Table B).

Husbands and wives who discuss family planning together are more likely to use contraception effectively and to have fewer children (13, 22, 23, 25, 27, 38, 40, 41). Surveys ask married men and women whether they discussed the practice of family planning with their partners in the preceding year and, if so, how often they discussed it—whether once or twice, or more often.⁶

In 23 of 35 countries with survey data, at least half of married men say they discussed family planning with their wives within the past year. Still, the percentage varies widely, from about 25% in Cape Verde and Senegal to over 75% in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Kenya, Malawi, Nicaragua, Peru, and Zimbabwe. In 24 countries—most in sub-Saharan Africa—most men who discussed family planning did so more than twice within the preceding year (see Table 6).

The percentage of married men who discussed family planning with their wives increased in 9 of 12 countries with more than one men’s survey since 1990 (see Table 6). In general, similar proportions of married men and women report discussing family planning. Among 33 countries with data on both men and women, the difference between men’s and women’s responses exceeds 10 percentage points in only 9 (see Table 6).

Most men approve of family planning. In 32 of 35 countries with data, at least half of married men say they approve of family planning. In eight surveyed countries—Bangladesh, Malawi, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe—over 90% of married men approve (see Table 7). Nevertheless, in 24 of the 34 countries with data on both men and women, more married women than men approve of family planning (see the companion report on surveys of women) (52). Differences between men and women in approval of family planning vary widely among countries.

Women often misperceive men’s attitudes. In order for a husband and wife to agree on the use of family planning, couples not only must discuss the topic but also accurately perceive each other’s attitudes (27). Surveys show that, overall, men are more likely to approve of family planning than women believe. In 33 of 34 countries surveyed—all except Kazakhstan—the percentage of married men who say they approve of family planning is much greater than the percentage of married women who say their husbands approve (see Table 7). Differences vary from 4 percentage points in Turkey to 39 points in Burkina Faso.

In 19 countries at least one woman in every five says she does not know whether her husband approves of family planning. Women who do not know whether their husbands approve of family planning, or who believe that their husbands disapprove, are much less likely to use contraception than those who believe that their husbands approve (27, 38).

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