By Michael Gwarisa
Uptake of Vasectomy as a contraceptive, and Family Planning method remains depressed among Zimbabwean men, HealthTimes has learnt.
A vasectomy (male sterilisation), is a surgical procedure to cut or seal the tubes that carry a man’s sperm to permanently prevent pregnancy.
Speaking during an event to mark the renewal of contracts for Zimbabwe Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) brand Ambassador and Male Motivator, ZNFPC Executive Director, Mr Farai Machinga said more females were now taking up Tubal Ligation (a surgical procedure for female sterilization which involves severing and tying the fallopian tubes) while males lag behind in terms of Vasectomy.
In Zimbabwe, you find that contraceptive or Family Planning preference is highly skewed towards the Pill at around 56 percent followed by Implants and the injectable at 17 percent, and 16 percent respectively,” said Mr Machiga.
“We still have a challenge especially around Vasectomy. We are still at 0.001 percent but if we are to talk about Tubal ligation, we are now at around 1.8 percent so we are not sure what’s happening to the males.”
The poor uptake of Vasectomy as a Family planning method by men is not peculiar to Zimbabwe as the National Institute for Health, estimates that only 2.4 percent of men around the world use this method, as compared to female sterilization (tubal ligation) which stands at 19 percent of women worldwide.
However, despite the poor uptake of Vasectomy, Zimbabwe has managed to increase its Morden contraceptive prevalence from 68 percent to 69 percent.
“We also managed to reduce the unmet need for Family Planning. When we talk about the unmet need for Family Planning, we are saying there is someone who needs the Family Planning services but is not accessing the service because of various reasons. We were at 13 percent in 2015 and we are now at 10 percent in terms of Unmet Need for Family Planning. As a nation, we are working towards achieving even the percentage of that Unment Need for Family Planning,” said Mr Machinga.
In terms of Adolescent Fertility Rate, Zimbabwe has experienced a reduction from 108/1000 to 93/1000.
“This is a great achievement when we look at the limited resources which we have as a country and the greater work which we need to do. We also managed to ensure that our commodity supply for the Family Planning services is within and below 5 percent of the Standard rate. Thumps up to the government which also chipped in terms of supporting the procurement of commodities. We received around US$1.5 Million worth of Contraceptives as of Last year and this was from the government.”
Zimbabwe is also working towards increasing its domestic funding for Contraceptives to 3 percent, from the current 2.6 percent with the participation as well as commitment of government into Family Planning Issues.