What About Teh Menz: Turns Out Women's Clinics Can Have An Impact
Photo by Flickr user crimfants. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Amanda Stukenberg of RHRealityCheck.org says
For thirty-five years, family planning strategies to reduce unplanned pregnancy and STDs have focused almost exclusively on women: over 95% of Title X patients are female.
Young men with reproductive health concerns are generally referred to STD clinics. But as long as male reproductive health services are synonymous with STD screening rather than more comprehensive clinical services, it should come as no surprise to us that men take a diminished role in both preventing pregnancy and embracing fatherhood.
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Minimal changes were made to the clinic's environment to be more welcoming to males, including the addition of magazines, posters, sports banners, and images that portray men positively. We changed the TV channel to something other than Lifetime. In exam rooms, staff hid the stirrups, which many men found frightening.**
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Male patients were more anxious than females who know what to expect in a family planning visit. Staff needed to be more reassuring and anticipate questions men did not readily verbalize. PPST used both male and female clinicians, and many men preferred females.
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If we are going to solve unplanned pregnancy and prevent STDs, family planning providers must advocate for male clinical services: we are failing to serve half the population! It is a good investment for men, for women, and for public health.
Stukenberg says that the most effective marketing strategy was women referring not just partners but male family members and friends.
I'd also say that while it's *in no way* necessarily in the scope of women's clinics to do in-lobby outreach my offhand experience has been that a *heck* of a lot of seriously part-of-the-problem men show up when their partners come in for care. I'm not sure what it'll take to bring them over to the part-of-the-solution side but contrary to anti-feminist propaganda we really do tend to be more scared than stupid.
I *do* know that if all anyone tells men is "well, all we can do is check you for STDs" then yeah there's not a lot of reproductive empowerement there. But as Stukenberg points out in her article *when* men are *actually approached* it turns out they're *really interested!* And yeah, it's got to be a bit of a letdown when we're told "well, you can use condoms or get a vasectomy" (at age 21 I chose vasectomy by the way) but there are still ways to help men get and stay more interested and have a more affirmative role in the options available to their partners.
Oh yeah, and can we just get over the notion that "men won't want it" if someone ever finally comes out with something reliable but reversable for us? Because basing projections onto a population that's prepared with "there's nothing for you and you're too selfish to use it anyway" *probably* isn't going to give you the most reliable baselines.
[** Note: If stirrups make men anxious I'm pretty sure it's not because we recognize them for what they are. I first noticed them folded up against the exam tables when our family switch from a pediatrician for us kids to a regular family doctors. They scared me too... to a point where I was totally relieved when someone *eventually* explained they were just to put your feet in and not to help set broken bones (which I'd imagined they must be. --fl]
I've actually been a guest of the State of California's programs as handled through Planned Parenthood, and it was awesome. One of the problems was that my actual primary care doctor subscribed to a "scared straight" model of care, and had packed me off to the local PP clinic with the infamous umbrella swab story. ("They push it in all the way, and open it up, and then pull it out.") Finding out that diagnostics could be done in a totally non-invasive way, that my previous health education at No Sex For U-niversity had been inadequate, and that I'd been careful, responsible, and decent despite a fairly extreme amount of shaming and silencing was a big morale boost. The great thing about diagnostics as practiced at PP was the total indifference to putative weirdness or kink, whether of the "purity" or "poly" persuasions--risk was assessed, not sexual morality.
[Yeah, like the whole "scared straight" strategy has ever worked on anyone who probably wouldn't just modify their behavior anyway? And just increased the stress levels of people who *might have* modified their behavior if just clearly and plainly told the truth. Glad you found good care, Eurosabra. And yeah, some of the remaining independent clinics are outstanding but Planned Parenthood's still awfully cool. --fl]