When reproductive health programs exclude men from consideration, they undermine their own effectiveness. Men's reproductive health directly affects that of their partners, though it has taken the AIDS epidemic to bring this reality into focus. Treating sexually transmitted infections with women makes little sense when the male partners who infected them are not involved in treatment and prevention education. Men can make motherhood safer by supporting the need for prenatal care, rest, and improved nutrition during pregnancy, and being actively involved during pregnancy and delivery. Men's support for limiting family size often makes it possible for women who want to use contraception or seek abortion to do so.
Many strategies exist to increase men's constructive participation in reproductive health.
Programs need to promote communication and respect between men and women on reproductive health issues and to help build the negotiating skills of both sexes. Of particular importance is the need to reach out to young and unmarried men whose ideas of gender roles and sexual scripts are not yet set in stone. And by providing information and referrals, reproductive health programs can raise men's awareness of the negative consequences of gender-based violence. The mass media can play an important role in informing men about reproductive health and the roles they can play in protecting their own health and that of their partners. The media can also educate men about the ways in which their control over family resources, violence at home, or views of male or female sexuality, for example, can inhibit good reproductive health.