Men averse to vasectomy

THE Population Division head of the Davao City Health Office (CHO) said that stereotyped gender roles still make males averse to vasectomy.

Population Division head Jeff Fuentes in a press conference that convincing men to undergo vasectomy remains to be a challenge.

Fuentes said this is due to the fact that women are still seen as one responsible for the family planning or birth control.

"Ang hisgutanan man gud nga family planning naa gihapon siya sa babae, sa among ginabuhat sa City Health (The issue of family planning is still regarded as the sole concern of women. What we are doing at City Health) is we are trying our best to go down to the community and help in the reshaping of this line of thinking," he said.

Data from CHO shown during the State of the City Address (Soca) of Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio bared that the number of men who had vasectomy dropped to 36 from January to June this year from 72 recorded in July to December 2016.

Despite the drop, the CHO recorded an opposite trend for female ligation.

For the period July to December 2016, 15 Women of Reproductive Age were ligated while during the period of January to June, there were 75 women ligated.

Fuentes said that a lot of work still needs to be done for the vasectomy campaign to be fully effective.

"Dako pa kaayo ang hisgutanan ining involvement sa lalaki mao na naga nagapasalamat mi sa Integrated Gender and Development Division (IGDD) sa ilang program for gender. Ang hisgutanang health is also gender issue pud siya dili ingon ana kasayon bag-ohon

ang panlantaw sa mga tao (There is still a lot of work to do in the involvement of men, which is why we thank the IGDD for their program for gender. The issue of health is also a gender issue and changing perspective of people is not easy)," he said.

He noted that vasectomy is still not the primary option for men, which is the reason why the main campaign was dubbed as “Kung mahal mo ang pamilya mo, magpavasectomy kayo" in order to concretize love for family.

He also debunked myth that vasectomy is the modern form of castration.

"Ang vasectomy dili kapon, ang vasectomy is vasectomy, ang kapon is kapon. Ayaw ug i-interchange (Vasectomy is not castration, vasectomy is vasectomy, castration is castration. Do not interchange)," he said adding that castration by definition means removal of testicles while the vasectomy is the cutting of the duct that connects the testicles and seminal vesicles.

He said even with vasectomy, abstinence is still the most effective birth control method.

Fuentes said they continue to give education to the communities including barangays on birth control.

He said they do not only focus on vasectomy in their campaigns, but they also focus to increase the participation of men in ensuring the health of the general household like bringing their child to the health center for immunization. KVC