Operations Research on Promoting Vasectomy in Three Latin American Countries

Ricardo Vernon

First published online:

Abstract / Summary

Data from six operations research projects in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico suggest that potential vasectomy clients come from a well-defined population of relatively young, well-educated men who have small families and are already practicing contraception. Clients' wives and other vasectomized men are especially influential in the decision to adopt vasectomy. Promoting vasectomy through mass media campaigns can be particularly effective in urban centers that have high-quality, accessible services. Promotion campaigns might stress the reasons men in these countries give for choosing vasectomy, especially its advantages over female sterilization and temporary methods, men's concern for their wife and her health, their desire to share responsibility for family planning, and the freedom from unintended pregnancy that vasectomy confers.

(International Family Planning Perspectives, 22:26-31, 1996)

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