Involving Men in Improving Reproductive Health Status in Bangladesh

In order to improve reproductive health status of Bangladesh, male involvement is a vital component. Most of the men are unaware of their role as a supporting partner in reproductive health issues. Through male involvement; we can achieve men’s improved knowledge about reproductive health issues and services, men’s increased use of reproductive health services, husband’s increased supportiveness for the reproductive health of their wives and overall decreased STDs/AIDS in Bangladesh.
This review was carried out in order to determine strategies to increase men’s supportiveness to their families in reproductive health services in Bangladesh. Both primary and secondary data were analyzed. The review finds out that so far, most male involvement initiatives have focused three major areas. Firstly, it focused on promotion of male contraception and safer sexual practices to prevent STDs and AIDS, secondly it focused on establishment of male-only sexual health clinics or holding separate clinic hours for males and carrying out of studies on the prevalence of STDs, and finally it focused on treatment-seeking behavior by men. However, still there are many areas in reproductive health issue which can be improved via male involvement. This review tries to identify those for future programs.

Reference:

Ali Ashraf, T. T.-e.-K. (1999). Male Involvement in Reproductive Health Services in Bangladesh: A Review . ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research.

Available at: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnacn631.pdf