BY: AMLESH
Have we ever stopped or really thought about this?
Why is that when we talked about pregnancy, the responsibility always falls on women?
From pills to hormonal injections, from IUCD, implants to permanent method of sterilizations, most of the contraceptives methods are designed for women. But why? Why are the women expected to adjust, tolerate side effects and sometimes even compromise with their health?
Let’s talk about it honestly.
A Thought That Keeps Coming Back in My Mind…
When a couple decide not to have a child, it’s a shared decision. But when it comes to preventing that pregnancy, it becomes a woman’s responsibility
Women take:
- Daily hormonal pills
Painful IUCD insertions
- Long term implants
- Injectable contraceptive
Surgical female sterilizations
And what do men usually use?
- Condoms
- Or vasectomy (rarely used)
And the reality? Most men don’t even reach the second option i.e vasectomy.
When we discussed with the data sources, According to NDHS-2022 report:
- The current user of male sterilization method (Vasectomy ) is only 3.6 %.
- While 57% of currently married women are using a method of contraception; 43% are using modern methods and 15% are using traditional method.
- The most popular methods used are female sterilization (13%), injectable (9%) and implants (6%).
The Silent Costs of Contraception on Women …
When a women takes a pills everyday, she starts experiencing irregular menstrual periods, heavy bleeding or unexpected spotting. Do we see it as a concern, or just something she is expected to tolerate?
What about the emotional side of it?
When mood swings, irritability, or even anxiety begin to appear, do we ever connect it to contraceptive use? And there are the physical changes like weight gain, headaches, fatigue, along with complications of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), breast cancer, cervical cancer which are also associated with the use of contraceptives and can be life threating. Do we dismiss all of this as “normal” without asking deeper questions? But why these side effects become so normalized for women?
Even more striking, have we noticed what happens when similar side effects appear in male contraceptives trials? When men reported mood changes, hormonal disturbances, physical changes or complications of contraceptives use, many of studies were stopped?
So Why this Inequality? Let’s talk…
To be honest, this is not just about biology. While it is true that women release one egg per month, making it easier to control fertility compared to men who produced millions of sperm daily. But, historically, medical research has focused more on controlling women’s fertility, creating a clear research bias. At the same time, social conditioning has reinforced the idea that family planning is primarily a women’s responsibility. Along with this, low male involvement due to lack of awareness, education and accountability, continues to widen this inequality.
Now The Questions Is Can Men Take Over Contraceptive Responsibility in The Future?
Things are slowly evolving and the answer is possibly, but not entirely. Globally, Several male contraceptive innovations are being developed such as:
- Male contraceptive pills: hormonal and non-hormonal
- RISUG (Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance)-India: a non-surgical injectable gel into vasa difference that blocks sperm motility.
- Vasalgel (USA): similar to RISUG that blocks sperm temporarily
- Male hormonal injections: suppress sperm productions
- Ultrasound based contraception (Experimental)
These advancement clearly show that science is catching up but slowly. While men may not completely take over contraceptives responsibility, the future points towards a more balance approach where both men and women share the responsibility equally.
So next time we talked about contraception, let’s ask:
Is it fair to expect only women to bear the burden for something that involve two people?
Because, the future of reproductive health should not be about
“Who sacrifices more?”
But about
“How we share responsibility equally?”