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The Knowledge And Practice Of Contraception Among Male Adolescent Students
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The Oxford Advanced Learners’
Dictionary of Current English defines “Contraceptives as a drug, device
of practice used to prevent a woman becoming pregnant.â€1 This
definition though well embracing but does not include its utilization as
a preventive measure against the spread of sexually transmitted
diseases; such as AIDS/HIV. The act of contraception has been an old
practice even from our forefathers who designed the timing of mating
with their wives or not depending on whether they want to make babies.
They have a mental picture of when the monthly menstrual flow of their
wives takes place or how long their wives have to breast feed their
babies to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Some traditional women even go
through the extra-mile of wearing contraceptive bands on their waist to
prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Each year, women around the
world experience 75 million unwanted pregnancies. Unwanted pregnancy
can occur for two main reasons; either the couple was not using
contraceptives, or the method they were using failed. There are many
reasons why people do not use contraceptives to prevent unwanted
pregnancy, including lack of access to family planning information and
services; incest or rape; personal or religious beliefs; inadequate
knowledge about the risks of pregnancy following unprotected sexual
relations; and women’s limited decision-making ability with regard to
sexual relations and contraceptive use.2 Many women are deprived of
family planning services.
The use of contraceptives by
both males and females has been accepted and widely practiced in the
developed world. This has not been the case in the developing world
where the male chauvinistic cultural belief that women should protect
themselves from unwanted pregnancies; instead of the men also making it
possible to use contraceptives. The act of child bearing is the
combined effort of both males and females, but in the developing world;
it is seen as a primary function of the female gender. This is the
reason why the usage of contraceptives among men in these areas has not
been encouraged as the female contraceptives. The patriarchal nature of
the African society does not seem to help or encourage male
contraception rather it makes men to believe that they do not have any
role to play in reproductive health.
In the developed
world, the populace has overgrown the persistent myths and negative
attitude of men towards contraception. However, the fact that male
contraception in the underdeveloped countries has not been encouraged
has led to the paucity of information about it and also reduced the
quest for knowledge in this area. Studies show that men want access to
better contraceptives. In a recent study of British men, 80% placed a
hypothetical male pill as one of their top three contraceptive choices
(Brooks, 1988)3. Another study found that over 60% of men in Germany,
Spain, Brazil and Mexico were willing to use a new method of male
contraception (Heinemaan, 2006).4 In another study on “why Nigeria
adolescent seek abortion rather than contraception: Evidence from focus
group discussions†where youths were asked about contraceptive
availability, perceived advantages of method used, side effects and
young people’s reasons for using or not using contraceptives? It was
found that the fear of future infertility was an overriding factor in
adolescent decisions to rely on induced abortion rather than
contraception.5
Methods of Contraception - are more in the female gender than the male.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]INTRODUCTION: Contraceptives are drugs or device used to prevent a woman from being pregnant and also used to protect men and women from sexually transmitted diseases. How can this be driven home is truth to our adolescences, utilized to reduce our teaming population and to reduce the diseases that are sexually transmitted. The project was done in March – July 2010.OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge and improve the practice of this knowledge in our teaming adolescent populatio ... Continue reading---
