It’s time for men to share the birth control burden
Men enjoy many privileges in our society, one being the minimal use of contraceptives.
Around the globe, contraception is viewed primarily as a women’s issue, with the onus of birth control largely dumped on them – another glaring example of gender inequality.
Women bear most of the financial and health-related burdens of contraception.
Out of the 14 choices listed as methods of contraception, only two – condoms and vasectomy – require a man’s direct participation.
Unfortunately, even these are underused. Globally, over 70 per cent of contraceptive users resort to female contraceptive methods.
Among these, female tubal ligation and hysterectomy tops the list at 23.7 per cent, with 219 million users. In contrast, male vasectomy has just 2 per cent takers. This is despite vasectomy being a minor procedure that takes just 15 minutes under local anaesthesia, compared to the complex tubal ligation surgery done under general anaesthesia and costing far more.
Here in New Zealand, we fare better than many other countries in terms of gender equality and contraception.
A 2014-15 Health Survey found that the most common contraceptive methods used were the oral contraceptive pill (23 per cent), the male condom (18 per cent) and male vasectomy (10 per cent).
But these figures still mean that 72 per cent of New Zealand women are shouldering the burden of birth control – and the financial, emotional and health effects these methods bring.
A woman can’t get pregnant alone, but she alone is often expected to prevent it.
As a working mother with two children, I have tried at least a dozen pills and different methods of contraception. But with nearly all – particularly hormone-based ones – I have experienced an array of negative effects on my mental or physical wellbeing, some severe. And I’m sick of them all.
The male contraceptive pill is already 50 years in development, and yet there is still no product on the market. New technologies are inching slowly closer to reality, but at a snail’s pace.
Scientists have been developing other male contraceptive methods, including a hormone injected into the penis (I bet that won’t have many takers) and a hormone-based gel. In reality, when finally available, these methods will face huge resistance from men, and also from some women who wouldn’t trust men to use them properly to prevent pregnancy.
A study reported a high success rate during a clinical trial of the men’s injectable contraceptive, but was canned after three years due to serious side effects, such as depression and mood disorders. But depression has long been linked with the female oral contraceptive pill, as well as injectable birth control methods for women, such as Depo Provera – so why weren’t these canned?
Along with depression, blood clotting and an increased risk of cervical and breast cancer are just a few of the pill’s side effects sadly accepted as ‘‘normal’’ by the medical profession.
A woman can’t get pregnant alone, but she alone is often expected to prevent it.
Scientists have also discovered how the pill changes the female brain, making us more masculine.
Another study suggested that women who used hormonal contraception – from pills, implants, IUDs and injections – had a 40 per cent chance of developing depression after six months of use.
The copper IUD can cause pain, cramps, dizziness, infection, and irregular or heavy bleeding, and research indicates that 10 to 13 per cent of users will have it removed due to these.
Even with the associated risks, female birth control options aren’t coming off the market any time soon. Instead, they continue to be used by millions of women around the globe – revealing the shocking inequality between how the medical community handles research and birth control between genders.
As women, we already shoulder the entire responsibility of pregnancy, abortion, birth and breastfeeding, and often the majority of childcare, and we enjoy less leisure time than men.
It’s time for men to step up and take on responsibility for what they have historically left to their women partners – discomfort, inconvenience, expense and side effects included.