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Sunday, July 09, 2006
Male participation in family planning needed
By Rachel M. Nessia
ADVOCATES appealed for more male participation in family planning and reproductive health issues of the family in view of the impending pullout of foreign support to family planning commodities in the Philippines.
Ayungon Municipal Health Officer Dr. Irving Dingcong appealed for men to be more involved in family planning during the Kapihan forum recently conducted by the Philippine Information Agency in Tanjay City.
Dingcong said that for 30 years, the Philippines have been a recipient of foreign-funded family planning commodities.
But the aid would expire in 2007 except for IUD, he said.
The health officer encouraged local government officials to earmark funds to buy family planning commodities in their areas.
He said that the burden on family planning has always been on the wife's shoulders.
"This is why the husbands should be responsible now and participate in their family's decision-making concerning family planning and reproductive health," Dingcong said.
Ayungon Municipal Council member Joveleo Acabal affirmed the health officer's stand.
Acabal disclosed in the same forum that the need for men's participation in family planning has resulted to the creation of the group, Men Advocates and Champions for Reproductive Health Options (Macho), a group of vasectomized men and male advocates of reproductive health in Ayungon.
Acabal said Macho conducts information campaigns in the barangays in Ayungon about the value of responsible parenthood.
"Our mission is to talk to other men and tell them that family planning makes sense," he said.
Macho's presence in Ayungon has also led to the creation of a special health fund for the continued supply of family planning commodities in the municipality.
Acabal noted the high incidence of unmet need among the women, particularly the wives.
"We have found out that women would prefer to have one or two children so they can also have time for themselves. For the past years, women have been informed and educated about the importance of family planning, but their husbands remain unaware about it, so it has still no effect," said Acabal.
Dingcong, one of the two trained vasectomists in Central Visayas, said one family planning method open for men is the no-scalpel vasectomy or NSV.
NSV is a simple method that can be done in a clinic with no incisions and can be finished within eight to 15 minutes.
"It is also cost effective. It is done one time only and it's a permanent type of method. So it will come out cheap. That's why I focus on NSV for males," he said.
Dingcong also rebuffed the popular belief that vasectomy is synonymous to castration.
"Vasectomy is different from castration. In castration, the male will no longer experience erection and becomes impotent," he said, adding that vasectomy will not affect a man's sex drive.
(July 9, 2006 issue)
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