Men’s Awareness of, Barriers to and Intention to Adopt Vasectomy among Married Men in Ibadan, Nigeria

Adeyimika T. Desmennu, University of Ibadan

The study was to assess married men’s awareness of, barriers to and intention to adopt vasectomy. Four hundred and thirty one men were selected and interviewed in a cross sectional survey. The mean age of the respondents was 44years (± 13.2). Fifty-eight (13.5%) respondents had never heard of vasectomy. One hundred and sixty (30.8%) considered it an ‘unacceptable’ method of contraception while 84(16.2%) see it as a sin against God. Barriers to the adoption of vasectomy included fear of the surgery; 61(14.2%), its irreversibility; 53(12.3%), fear of side-effects; 46(10.7%), lack of evidences; 28(6.3%) and lack of awareness; 27(6.3%). One hundred and twenty-eight (29.7%) showed willingness to adopt vasectomy. This was significantly related to respondent’s age (p<0.05). There is limited awareness of vasectomy, some barriers and few had intention to adopt it. Educational strategies such as; training and public enlightenment are needed to increase awareness and adoption of vasectomy.