Sexual and reproductive health: what about boys and men?

Education and service provision are the keys to increasing involvement

Boys and men have been left out in our efforts to improve sexual and reproductive health. A national survey of family planning clinics by the Family Planning Association showed that young men are much less likely than women to access sexual health services.1 The United Kingdom government is currently assessing the feasibility of a screening programme for Chlamydia trachomatis. Its two pilot studies are focusing on women, but some argue that this “calls into question our ability and commitment adequately to address the sexual health needs of heterosexual men.”2 Why should we turn our attention to men? And how can we foster men's responsibility towards sexual and reproductive health? These questions were considered recently at the fifth seminar of the European Society of Contraception in Amsterdam and several proposals made.

Objections were raised to focusing on men's needs, including the concern that this may jeopardise reproductive …