Data released by the Ministry of health points to a trend whereby men are now taking one for the family, or rather two literally. The ministry intimated that 500 men underwent vasectomy in the last one year alone, this is pointing to an upward trajectory of the number of men being involved in the family planning method.

There seems to be a departure from women always taking the center stage in family planning, nowadays men are also being involved in reproductive health matters. This is a move that the Ministry of health has lauded because ours is a society where men make most of the decisions within the family set up.

Speaking to journalists at a Nairobi hotel when he released the report, Dr Andrew Mulwa who is the head of preventive and promotive health at the Ministry of Health, said that many women are not able to access family planning services because they have not been allowed by their male partners.

“And that is why they choose the short-term methods, the injectables for three months so that the man will never see them swallowing anything. If they put the implant, the man is likely to know,” Dr Mulwa said.

This according to Dr Mulwa, pushes women to make use of short term methods which in turn lead to numerous negative effects which come to negatively affect their reproductive health later.

According to data by the ministry, uptake of family planning has been on an upward trajectory from 51.9% in 2020 with the uptake currently standing at 52%.

Prof. Peter Mungai Ngugi, a professor of surgery at the University of Nairobi and a founding fellow of the College of Surgeons for East, Central and Southern Africa says that vasectomy is a simple medical procedure that can even be done by a general practitioner “under a tree”. This is easier as compared to tubal ligation for women.

Prof Mungai explains that tubal ligation, a permanent form of contraceptive for women, is a more complex procedure and involves going under general anesthesia and several scalpel incisions. It involves closing both fallopian tubes, which means that the egg cannot travel from the ovaries and sperm cannot get to an egg to fertilize it, and is done by a gynaecologist. After the procedure, most women will spend several hours in the hospital. It costs between KES 20,000 and KES 60,000 to perform a vasectomy depending on the medical center, private hospitals tend to cost more.