Male involvement in sexuality and reproduction: a framework for discussion.

Involving men in reproductive health and fertility programs is desirable because control of sex and reproduction is often male-driven and because male behavior affects sexually transmitted disease transmission and the welfare of children. As the gender perspective has widened to encompass both sexes studies of male sexuality fertility and family responsibility have become more numerous. The most consistent finding is that men do indeed control reproductive decisions in many places. A framework to define promising lines of inquiry and help identify feasible interventions could constructively be based on an approach through relationships studied systematically over the male course of life. The framework posits that a variety of relationships between men and women exist in every culture. The social rules and cultural ideas defining them the power dimension of the rules and ideas changes in relationships over the male life cycle and changes in the life cycle itself in response to macroeconomic and political changes create a chain of connection leading from the intimate level of relationships to larger societal forces that can be applied as a method for understanding the male place in reproductive relations. The framework has the advantages of simplicity and applicability to rape domestic violence and other troubling aspects of reproductive health because it does not start at the point of marriage. A useful first step would be to integrate existing material on the topic of male involvement in sexuality and reproduction.