No vasectomy say C/R men

Saturday, May 2, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 3)

No vasectomy - say C/R Men
From Shirley Aseidu-Addo, Cape Coast.
Men in the Central Region say they will not patronise vasectomy and will not risk opting for it even if it is the only family planning method available.
And, indeed, there is no record of vasectomy in the region, indicating that the men are, indeed, not patronising it. Vasectomy is a surgical procedure that makes a man sterile.
It is generally considered by health experts to be at least as effective as female sterilisation and is simple to perform, safer and less costly. It is done by blocking the tube through which sperms normally pass from each testicle on the way to the seminal vesicle to form semen.
The surgery usually takes no more than 30 minutes, after which time almost all men go home the same day.
In an interview conducted by The Mirror randomly in Cape Coast, the regional capital, not even one man said he would opt for the method.
They said the issue of vasectomy was one that touched on socio-cultural sensitivities and advised advocates of family planning methods to go slow on it.
“Madam, this vasectomy thing is castration given a nice name and no man would want to be castrated, I tell you,” Kofi, a student, said with all seriousness.
Others said they believed it would take a long time and extensive education for Ghanaian men to decide to opt for vasectomy.
“We don’t joke with such things, madam. I will not even think about opting for it; not even the old men will,” one gentleman said.
 “I know a man whose children died and he wanted to have more children. If he had done vasectomy, what would he have done? It is a serious matter and I think it must not be encouraged,” said another gentleman, Eshun, a father of two.
It was not so surprising what the interviewees said. Indeed, the Regional Population Advisory Committee (RPAC) was seriously divided on the issue.
The male members of the committee vehemently opposed a suggestion that they should promote the method by opting for it and serve as role models for other men.
No male member of the RPAC supported the idea, saying promoting vasectomy in our culture and environment would not be an easy task.
They, however, thought it should be encouraged, as it was a very effective way of checking unwanted pregnancies.
“Even the wives would not want their husbands to go in for this, I assure you,” one member said.
But the women The Mirror interviewed said if they had had the required number of children, they would not mind if their husbands underwent vasectomy.
“Why not?” one woman queried, “we are all human beings and what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. If I am able to take pills and others which also have side effects, why can’t he undergo the vasectomy?”
Ms Joyce Amedoe of the Central Regional Office of the National Population Council confirmed that there were no records of vasectomy in the region.
She noted in an address at the RPAC meeting that 2,282 abortions were recorded in the region in 2008, which she said indicated that people were having unwanted pregnancies.
She said only 33.6 per cent of the targeted population were receiving family planning services in 2008, a reduction from 37.3 per cent in 2006.  
She said people were also preferred short-term contraceptive methods to long and more permanent methods, while the use of condoms was also very low.
Ms Amedoe said that called for concern, since the quality of life of the people was essential for development.
She noted that problems such as streetism, teenage pregnancy, prostitution and drug abuse were increasing, adding that Ghanaians must work to help reduce the rate of population growth to meet the level of economic growth.
A Deputy Director at the Central Regional Co-ordinating Council, Mr Emmanuel Nortey, who chaired the meeting, said it was important for institutions to collaborate to help deal effectively with population issues.
The members called for clear messages to enable the populace to understand and adopt more responsible reproductive health lifestyles.
 Meanwhile, figures available at the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for 2006 show that the Central, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Volta regions did not record any man undergoing vasectomy, reports Rebecca Kwei.
These five regions, with the exception of Brong Ahafo, which had one vasectomy, again recorded zero in 2007. The Upper East, Western and Eastern regions also recorded zero in 2007.
However, in 2006 the Western Region recorded four, while the Eastern Region had one and Upper East had three vasectomy cases.
The Ashanti Region recorded a high of 53 in 2006, but the figure dropped to 37 in 2007, while Greater Accra, which recorded 27 in 2006, had its vasectomy cases increasing to 85 in 2007.
According to the Data Manager of the Family Health Division of the GHS, Mr Henry Safori, the 2008 figures for vasectomy were not ready since they were still in the process of cross-checking figures made available to the division.
On why men did not patronise vasectomy, a maternal health programme officer of the division, Mrs Gladys Brew, said it had to do with culture and religion.
She explained that some men would not undergo vasectomy because they feared it would interfere with sexual function or they thought it was castration.
She, however, dismissed those thoughts as untrue.
Additionally, she said most men felt that contraception was solely a woman’s responsibility, since she was the one who would get pregnant and carry a baby.
Mrs Brew was, however, quick to add that undergoing vasectomy was a personal choice and not something to be forced on men, adding that there was a range of family planning options and one would have to choose the one which he or she would be comfortable with.