Male involvement in Family Planning in the Philippines: Who are willing to undergo vasectomy and what are the reasons of those who are unwilling?

Vasectomy is safe and effective form of male contraception. However, in the Philippines only one percent of Filipino men have undergone vasectomy although16 percent of men in union are willing to undergo this procedure after they have reached their desired number of children. Using the 2003 Philippine National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), this study seeks to identify the factors associated with the willingness of Filipino men in union to undergo vasectomy. Moreover, it will also investigate the various reasons why Filipino men would never consider getting vasectomised. Results show that men who live in urban areas and have higher number of children are more likely to be willing to undergo male sterilization. Reasons of Filipino men why they would never consider undergoing vasectomy are: bad for man’s health (45%), less intrusive family planning method are available (23%), loss of manliness (15%) and loss of sexual function (12%). Filipino men who have lower levels of education and formally married are more likely to say that they would never consider getting vasectomised because it is bad for man's health while the rich men are less likely to say that it will cause loss of their sexual function.