Would women trust their partners to use a male pill?

Despite a renewed interest in the development of hormonal contraceptives fo r men, many discussions about the potential acceptability of a 'male pill' end by speculating whether women would trust their partners to use the meth od reliably, To determine the views of women, we undertook a survey of 1894 women attending family planning clinics ire. Scotland (450), China (900) a nd South Africa (544). In all centres over 65% of women thought that the re sponsibility for contraception falls too much on women. More than 90% in So uth Africa and Scotland thought that a 'male pill' was a good idea, with Ch inese women (71% in Dong Kong and 87% in Shanghai) only slightly less posit ive, Only 13% of the: total sample did not think that hormonal male contrac eption was a good idea and only 36 women (2% of the total) said that they w ould not trust their partner to use it, 78% of Scottish women, 71% of Shang hai women, and 78% of white women and 40% of black and coloured women in Ca pe Town thought that they would use the method, This survey should dispel t he myth that women would not trust their partners to use a 'male pill' reli ably and illustrates the potential market for the method.