While men share responsibility for reproductive health, lack of attention to them in the past has conveyed a message that family planning is not their concern. The more that programs can reach men, the healthier the consequences will be for men, women, and children. Today, family planning programs increasingly are focusing on involving men. Yet much remains to be done to turn interest into healthy behavior. In particular, encouraging men to discuss reproductive health, including family planning, with their partners and to share responsibility for reproductive decisions is a good health care strategy.
Men play powerful even dominant roles in reproductive decisions.
Without considering their partners' wishes or the health consequences for themselves or their partners, however, their actions can have unhealthy and even dangerous results. In contrast, couples who talk to each other about family planning and reproductive health reach healthier decisions. Men's attitudes and behavior. Men's contraceptive use is lower than might be expected, given their levels of knowledge and approval of family planning, according to surveys of men in developing countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Use of contraceptive methods that involve men's cooperation condoms, vasectomy, withdrawal, and periodic abstinence amounts to about one-third of all contraceptive use among married couples.