Attitudes towards the male contraceptive pill: psychosocial and cultural explanations for delaying a marketable product

Abstract

Even though years of research on the male contraceptive pill have been conducted, a marketable product is still absent from the arsenal of male and female products of contraception. In this paper the following psychosocial and cultural factors have been elicited from the literature in order to reveal explanations for this delay: acceptability, trust, fear of side-effects, perceptions of contraceptive responsibility and fear of losing connotations of masculinity. Regardless of cultural variation, overall there seems to be a positive attitude towards the acceptability of male contraceptive for both males and females, especially males in stable relationships. There has been some indication that the media have played an important role in distorting the results of research regarding male and female trust. Ongoing and future research into several projects on psychosocial and cultural factors is described.

Are men ready to use thermal male contraception? Acceptability in two French populations: New fathers and new providers

“…The lack of knowledge in France regarding forms of male contraception and their mode of administration has already been identified [ 6 , 38 ] as a major obstacle to implementation and acceptability, and this study highlights the importance of information regarding this subject in both general and medical literature.…”

“…A significant gap is apparent in the initial training of contraceptive specialists (gynaecologists) and primary care physicians represented by general practitioners. These results allow us to highlight one of the important general constraints of the dissemination of information regarding male contraception [ 6 ], especially for TMC, which is the lack of knowledge and therefore the lack of propagation by prescribers.…”

“…TMC presents many advantages for potential users and prescribers and fulfils many of the criteria sought in a contraceptive method, i.e., non-hormonal, effective, reversible, without side effects and economical. For several of the respondents in stable relationships, TMC may represent a possible contraceptive method after childbirth [ 6 ] according to their “intention of use”. The main obstacles identified are the lack of knowledge among potential users, reservations about the conditions of use and lack of training of physicians regarding male contraception and TMC.…”

“…The “new fathers” (NFs) group was designed to represent potential users and was composed of fathers recruited in maternity hospitals. We focused on men in stable relationships [ 4 , 6 , 9 ] and at a time in their lives (around childbirth) at which they may be questioning and experiencing concern regarding available contraception options. This population was called “new fathers” regardless of their ages and whether the men had become fathers for the first time.…”

Towards responsible ejaculations: the moral imperative for male contraceptive responsibility

“…LARCs are likely to face particular kinds of resistance that condoms do not engender, since the purpose of LARCs is to reduce the fertility of a man. For many men, "virility" is strongly connected to masculinity, which is often a fiercely-defended identity [62].…”