Lauren Oakley asked 70 men across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to answer two surveys relating to male contraception. Here are the results.
Hard Pill to Swallow asked 70 men across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn their opinions on male contraception, if they’d take it and if they think there is a stigma surrounding it.
The first survey was posted for the men on our Instagram stories. The question was: “Would you ever consider taking a male contraceptive pill?”
63% of men said yes, and 37% of men said they would not take the pill.
The last question asked on Instagram was: “Would you take a contraceptive pill if it affected your sex drive and weight gain?”
15% of men said yes, and 85% of men said no to taking a pill if it came with these side effects.
The other surveys asked men across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to share their opinions.
The first question asked was: “Would you take a form of male contraception?”
16.2% of the men said no, but 83.8% of men said they would take a form of male birth control.
The second question for the men of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn was: “If you were to take male contraception, is it important for it to be reversible?”
89% of men said yes, they would prefer the contraception to be reversible, whereas 10% of men said no, it wouldn’t be important to them.
The third question asked was: “Would you rather a non-hormonal contraception or a hormonal contraception?”
10% of men said they would prefer a hormonal contraception. However, 89% of men said they would rather a non-hormonal form.
The following questions asked men if they think there is a stigma surrounding contraception and if they think it should be for women only.
When asked: “Do you think contraception should be for females only?” 17.1% of men said yes.
However, 82.9% of men said they don’t think birth control should be only for women.
Although, 80% of men said they wouldn’t take a form of male contraception if it affected their masculinity, 82.9% of men said that it if they did take birth control, it wouldn’t make them feel less masculine.
40% of men said they would take birth control even if it did affect their masculinity, but 17.1% said it would make them feel less masculine if they took it. (See two charts below)
The male contraceptive gel has shown to shrink men’s testes whilst applying it. When asked if men would still use the gel after knowing this fact, 68.6% of men said they would not, but 31.4% of men said they would still use the gel if available to them.
And lastly, when asked if men think there is a need/demand for other forms of male contraception, not just condoms and vasectomies, 40% of men disagreed. Whereas, 60% of men agreed that there is a demand for more forms.
To conclude, most men would be willing to take a form of male contraception and share their side of the responsibility. But, the stigma surrounding contraception still lives on.