MENS VIEWS ON MALE HORMONAL CONTRACEPTION - A SURVEY OF THE VIEWS OF ATTENDERS AT A FITNESS CENTER IN BRISTOL, UK

The last three decades have seen a significant move in Western society away from traditional gender roles. How do these role changes extend to the area of family planning? Family planning researchers and servic e providers have focused almost exclusively on women. Scientific resea rch is being undertaken to develop a hormonal contraceptive for men. S ervice providers should be asking the question: Holy will UK men respo nd to a reversible hormonal contraceptive method for males? The aim of the study is to begin answering this question. A descriptive survey e xplored the view of a sample of UK men towards a future, hormonal cont raceptive method. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed th rough convenience sampling to 250 men. The response rate was 46 per ce nt (115). In terms of preference of contraceptive methods, the 'male p ill' ranked third as a first choice and ranked first as the second cho ice. The results indicate that couples in an established relationship may be the appropriate target group for a 'male pill', The tablet form was the preferred delivery method for a future male hormonal contrace ptive. Perceived side effects were not well tolerated with 71 per cent (81) of respondents nor prepared to tolerate any The majority (94 per cent) expected health monitoring and 38 per cent of men were willing to pay between pound 5-pound 10 per month. The results indicate a pote ntial uptake of a future 'male pill', with couples in an established r elationship as an appropriate target group. However; the study was bas ed on a sample which tvas small and biased towards middle-class profes sionals. Further research is needed which covers a wider geographical area representing all social groups and includes women.