A university's male personnel's knowledge and attitudes about vasectomy

Aim
We aimed to determine male personnel’ working at Baskent University knowledge and attitudes about vasectomy, and related factors.

 Methods
This study was performed between September 2006 and September 2007 at Baskent University. A questionnaire composed of determinants  of family planning, self-description of family planning was given to volunteer academic and managerial personnel (n = 594). Data was analyzed by SPSS 11.0 statistical program.

 Results
Mean age of the respondents was 33.4±7.0, 26% of them was graduated from college, 76.5% married. Of the participants, 42.6% reported that they thought vasectomy has a negative impact on their sexual life; 32.5% had no idea about it and %24.9 reported that vasectomy did not have any negative impact on their sexual functioning. The answers to the question “Would you consider vasectomy for yourself, and tube ligation for your partner?” were 16.5% “no” and 50.4% “yes”. 18.2% of childless men, and 15.1% of men who have children reported that they thought vasectomy or tuba ligation as a reasonable family planning method. 21.5% of men who has one child; 11.7% who have 2; and 14.3% who have three children reported that they would choose vasectomy or tuba ligation as a family planning method. 52.3% of the academic personnel thought that vasectomy was a safe method, and 28.6% reported that they would accept it. This finding was statistically significant when compared with managerial stuff (p<0.05).    

 Conclusion
Vasectomy is not a preferred method in Turkey. According to our results men think that it makes negative impact on sexual desire. The other striking findings of our study are males who had 3 or more children did not prefer to have a vasectomy method and both vasectomy and tuba ligation were more preferred in the academic group.