Many men are willing to participate in contraception, at least in theory, but their tools to do so are unacceptably narrow and limited, and they are generally not willing to undergo inconvenience in order to use them. They can use condoms, a cheap, effective and easy solution with no negative health repercussions. Condoms have the added benefit of helping to protect against sexually transmitted infections. But many men, somewhat selfishly, complain that condoms diminish their pleasure slightly, and so they do not want to use them (that the comparative risk to a woman matters more than the minor diminishment of these men’s pleasure does not seem to occur to these men).
Of course, men seeking a longer-term birth control solution can get vasectomies, a minimally invasive and often reversible procedure that renders them unable to impregnate a woman and does not have adverse side effects. But men don’t like this either. They are afraid of the post-procedure pain, which feels like “they got kicked in the boys for a day or two, on and off,” according to the University of Utah urologist Alex Pasturzak, and they sometimes falsely believe that the procedure will inhibit their bodies’ ability to create and absorb testosterone, rendering them effeminate.
Then there is the matter of men’s hormonal birth control, the fabled “male pill”. The male pill has long been a dream of feminists who want to redistribute responsibility for pregnancy prevention so that women do not have to carry the burden alone. But the prospects are bleak.
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