Vasectomy: A Survey of Attitudes, Counseling Patterns and Acceptace among Nigerian Resident Gynaecologists

Abstract

Objectives: Previous Nigerian studies show wide-spread ignorance and low acceptance of vasectomy among the male population. The objectives of this study were to determine the level of knowledge of, attitudes to, counselling pattern and acceptance of vas-ectomy among Nigerian Resident Gynaecologists. Design: A cross-sectional questionnaire based survey. Method: Resident Doctors attending a national update course in obstetrics and gynaecology. Results: Most of the doctors had good knowledge of Vasectomy. More than four-fifth of the doctors were convinced that the average Nigerian male will not ac-cept vasectomy when indicated while more than three-fifth consider BTL a more appropriate option for per-manent contraception in our setting. Forty one point three percent of the doctors will opt for vasectomy or urge their husbands to. Reasons for opposition to vas-ectomy were socio-cultural (21.3%), religious (13.1%) and psychological (41.0%), 24.6% had no specific rea-sons. While 89.4% of the doctors counselled often for BTL only 5.8% did for vasectomy. Conclusion: The Doctors showed good knowledge of vasectomy but most were poorly disposed towards use of vasectomy. The findings suggest a need for effective national training programmes targeted at resident doc-tors to enhance their knowledge of vasectomy as well as break barriers to personal use of, and counselling for vasectomy.

Keywords: vasectomy, doctors, knowledge, counsel-ling patterns, attitudes, acceptance

Ghana Medical Journal, September 2011, Volume 45, Number 3