Men and Contraception in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This dissertation explores the caveats of men's sexual lives in sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on contraception. For too long, men have been thought of only as obstacles to women's contraceptive use, but as I show in the following pages, men's desired family size has decreased over the last several decades. They have a need for contraception and attitudes about its use. The dissertation focuses on men as individuals, and examines the differences between demographic sub-groups. Men are also treated as individuals in terms of their sexual life course. The following research recognizes men, not only as husbands or partners, but as people with their own motivations and attitudes.

The dissertation is broken into three chapters which look at the different ways we can study men and fertility. The first chapter takes a measure commonly applied to women, unmet need for contraception, and looks at the challenges of adapting this measure to men. The second chapter creates a measure more suitable to men and their unique sexual experiences, a measure of attitudes towards contraception. This attitude measure can be applied to all men, regardless of their relationship status or fertility desires. Finally, the period surrounding young men's sexual lives is the focus of the third chapter. As data concerning these men is limited, this chapter takes a qualitative research approach, analyzing in-depth interviews conducted in the North Region of Cameroon to understand how men learn about sex and contraception and how they conduct themselves during their sexually active lives prior to marriage.

Men are individuals, with their own motivations, desires, attitudes, and actions, and it is necessary for us to include them in sexual and reproductive health and fertility research in this way.