Perception of Resident Doctors towards Vasectomy: A Nigerian Study

Abstract

By the year 2050 Nigeria's population is projected to be the 3^rd in global ranking. It is therefore important that men should be involved in family planning. Vasectomy which is a permanent method of contraception may not be welcomed in this part of the world due to myriad of reasons such as socio-cultural, religious amongst others. Perception of resident doctors towards vasectomy in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. This was a six months cross-sectional descriptive study on the perception of resident doctors towards vasectomy in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Permission for the study was obtained from the Ethical committee of the Rivers State Hospital Management Board. Informed consent was obtained from subjects who were randomly selected. Seventy seven respondents were enrolled for the study. The information obtained was coded and analysed using SPSS version 20. Forty-eight respondents (62.3%) were males while 29 (37.7%) were females. The modal age was 35 years; the modal number of children was 3. Twenty-three (29.9%) doctors both females and males were in support of vasectomy as family planning option. Of this number 12(52.2%) were females compared to 11 (47.8%) male. A total of 54 (70.13%) doctors rejected vasectomy of which 14 (19.08%) were females compared to 40(51.95%) males. This was statistically significant. Twenty-eight (36.4%) of the respondents had personal undisclosed reasons why they rejected vasectomy. However, 4 (5.2%) of the respondents were indifferent as to why vasectomy was a contraceptive option. The study revealed that acceptance of vasectomy amongst Resident doctors was poor (29.9%). The commonest reason was due to its irreversibility in over half of the subjects (58.4%). The study indicated that in this part of the world the majority of Resident doctors have aversion for vasectomy due to its irreversibility.