‘I’m committed to her and the family’: positive accounts of vasectomy among New Zealand men

Abstract

Background: More than 15 years ago, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) identified men's involvement with reproductive and contraceptive tasks as vital for improving women's reproductive health worldwide. The uptake of vasectomy provides one measure of men's involvement in reproductive and contraceptive actions, but uptake requires the negotiation of a complex set of social and psychological meanings related to masculinity, sexuality and contraceptive involvement. The limited research in this area paints a largely negative picture around vasectomy, emphasising fears, side effects, and men being pressured into having the operation, but it is not the only account of vasectomy. Objectives: The aim of this research was to examine the accounts of New Zealand men who had undergone vasectomy. Method: Interviews with 28 men who had opted to have a vasectomy (16 had children; 12 did not) based in New Zealand, a country with a high rate of vasectomy, offer a more positive portrayal of the meanings and experiences of vasectomy. Results: Men referred to vasectomy as a positive reflection of their identities, and their choice to have it as exemplifying personal characteristics they valued. Such accounts disrupt the common-sense story of vasectomy as negative or difficult for men, and allow it to be positioned as a positive choice for heterosexual male reproductive involvement and responsibility

“Suddenly, bang, one day there's commitment with a woman…” Men, vasectomy and the life course

“…This bears some difference from earlier, often US-based work (e.g., Miller et al, 1991a;Mumford, 1983), which tended to emphasise the struggles, diffi culties and potential for regret about the operation among vasectomised men (see Terry & Braun, 2011a for more discussion on the ' negative tone ' of earlier research on vasectomy). It may be that contemporary cultural conditions (such as women ' s increasing role in the workplace, men ' s increasing exposure to health campaigns, and men ' s increasing involvement in child rearing) support the inevitability of the vasectomy for New Zealand men in the age group interviewed for this study, and this seems to be borne up by the statistics of high uptake from Sneyd et al (2001) research.…”

“…This paper analyses qualitative data from single oneto-one interviews with men who had had a vasectomy, and is part of a larger study on men describing their vasectomies in the Aotearoa/New Zealand context (Terry & Braun, 2011aTerry & Braun, 2013). Sixteen participants had undergone a ' typical ' vasectomy (i.e., were partnered and had children), 12 participants had undergone a ' pre-emptive ' vasectomy (i.e., identifying themselves as childfree and wishing to make this permanent) and 6 participants were in the process of deciding whether to have a vasectomy.…”

“…The vasectomy was therefore constructed as evidence of a milestone fulfi lment, the end of child bearing, as much as it was a contraceptive choice. This sense of being carried along by the life course does not mean the vasectomy was not signifi cant for the men, they more often than not constructed it as a ' big deal ' , and Michael himself referred to it in terms of being a ' sacrifi ce ' (Terry & Braun, 2011a). Although the operation itself was often referred to in terminology similar to Chad ' s ( " it ' s just such a pathetic little operation " ), its signifi cance to their partners and to themselves was infl ected with meaning.…”

Perspectives of urban Ghanaian women on vasectomy

“…“Vasectomy is not an end in itself but a beginning of taking responsibility for the family’s welfare” [ 1 ]. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Egypt identified male involvement in contraception as vital to women’s health [ 2 ]. Advocacy for male involvement in the use of family planning methods has been promoted over the years [ 3 ].…”

“We have friends, for example, and he will not get a vasectomy”: Imagining the self in relation to others when talking about sterilization.

“…Mumford, 1983). Even in a country such as New Zealand, which arguably has the highest rates of vasectomy worldwide (Pile & Barone, 2009;Sneyd, Cox, Paul, & Skegg, 2001;Terry & Braun, 2011a, 2011b, there is often a significant period of delay. This delay has been accounted for in various ways, but one explanation is that vasectomy exists within a 'contraceptive economy' where women are considered primarily responsible for the contraceptive burden (Oudshoorn, 2003(Oudshoorn, , 2004Terry & Braun, 2011b).…”