What Do Men Want

Understanding What Men in South Asia Want from Sexual Health Services

Bibliographic Data

ID19543302
AuthorsSarah Hawke (0000-0003-1062-3538, University of London), Martine Collumbien (University of London)
Year2007
Volume19
Issue3
Pages53-64
Publication date2007-12-07
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Sexual Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1931-7611 • E-ISSN: 1931-762X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1300/j514v19n03_07
OpenAlexW2048327741
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited36

Men play a key role in determining good sexual health outcomes for themselves and their sexual partners. However, many interventions and much of the programmatic focus and effort in reproductive and sexual health care delivery, are focused on women. This paper shows how international goals for development (the Millennium Development Goals), and international agreements on population and development (such as that agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo,1994) cannot be met without the full and active involvement of men. We argue that achieving international goals and targets requires more than simply encouraging men to take more responsibility for their actions, it requires a detailed understanding of men's own concerns in the field of sexual health and a commitment to address those concerns to achieve better sexual health for all. Using examples from south Asia, the paper explores the evidence surrounding the burden of men's sexual ill-health in the Region. We find that while public health programmes are (rightly) focused on controlling HIV (and sexually transmitted infections to some degree), evidence from population-based surveys of men across south Asia shows that men are most concerned with 'psycho- sexual conditions' including discharge syndromes, weakness, and erectile dysfunction. There is evidence that some of these conditions may be linked to higher rates of risk-taking and gender- based violence in some men. We further review patterns of care seeking for men reporting these and other sexual health problems. We conclude that the challenges facing public health professionals are how to ensure that men receive interventions which are appropriate (and affordable and accessible and of high quality) for addressing their own sexual health concerns whilst also meeting wider public health goals of improving population levels of sexual and reproductive health. © Copyright (c) by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved

Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Health care · Millennium Development Goals · Political science · Population · Psychological intervention · Public health · Reproductive health · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Sexual function and dysfunction studies · Gerontology

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