ABSTRACT
In an attempt to explain a measly 0.2 percent acceptance rate for non-scalpel vasectomy among men attended to in a Family Planning Clinic in a tertiary hospital in a suburban community, a cross-sectional study was done on 171 males living with a sexual partner in the reproductive age Objective: To determine their perception of contraception, vasectomy in particular. Methodology: Survey questionnaires were used. Data structure was programmed in EPI Info Version 6.04 produced by the Division of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Epidemiology Program Office in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Ninety seven percent of the respondents agreed that the husband should also take responsibility for family planning, and 98.8 percent agreed with the need to space pregnancies to achieve better health and avoid risks in pregnancy. All of them knew of at least one family planning service provider and 85 percent knew that a family planning program existed in their community. However, most of them know and use only temporary methods like rhythm, oral pills and condom. Although 50 percent of them had some idea about vasectomy as a contraceptive method, none had undergone vasectomy. The factors shown to be related to misconceptions about vasectomy were: age older than 36, no or low education, and having four or more children. Conclusion: For contraceptive prevalence to match levels of awareness of permanent methods like non-scalpel vasectomy, massive information campaigns, re-training of family planning service providers and education of prospective male acceptors have to be given high priority.