(1)Hospital Durand de Buenos Aires (2)Instituto Médico Especializado- IME - Buenos Aires - Argentina
Introduction: Since men have to share the responsibility for family planning with their partners and there are not many contraceptive options for them, scientists have been investigating the possibility of male hormonal contraception (MHC). But little is known about attitudes regarding this method. Objective: To address the situation regarding male and female attitudes towards MHC in Buenos Aires. Material and method: Semi-structured interviews to 611 people (334 women and 277 men) in their reproductive years were performed by peers (by gender and age) between 2004 and 2005 in urban and sub-urban areas of Buenos Aires. Chi square test was used for the statistic analysis and a p value inferior to 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 47.8% (n=292) individuals answered that they/their partner would never use MHC, 21% (n=128) that they/their partner would use such a method and 31% (n=191) that they do not know. Differences between men and women (56% vs 41%) for not using MHC were significant. Differences between age-groups showed a tendency, more adolescents than adults were reluctant to MHC (53% vs 45.7%, p=0.079). Main reasons for not using MHC were related to fear or dislike of medicines, relying contraception on women and concerns about adverse events but not sexuality concerns. Conclusions: The idea of using MHC is not very popular in Buenos Aires but since information is scarce the fact that 21% of the population would use MHC and 31% did not know may suggest that around half percent of the population would probably use MHC at some time. Therefore it is important to work with sexual education and ethic to give individuals the opportunity to try MHC and freely decide.
Key words: male hormonal contraception, acceptability, users/partner’s attitudes
