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La contraception pour les hommes — une cause perdue ?

Contraception for men — a lost cause ?

Résumé

Avant la disponibilité de la contraception hormonale féminine, les hommes des pays d’Europe occidentale, à travers l’utilisation du préservatif et la pratique du coït interrompu, avaient une grande partie de la responsabilité pour la régulation des naissances. En dépit de ce fait, le développement des méthodes hormonales masculines a reçu peu de soutien des divers acteurs qui pourraient favoriser leur arrivée sur le marché et leur distribution : l’industrie pharmaceutique, le corps médical, les bailleurs internationaux de fonds de recherche et les médias. Une déconstruction des représentations et valeurs sous-jacentes, mais rarement explicites, relatives aux rapports du genre nous permet de comprendre pourquoi la contraception hormonale masculine reste coincée dans le marasme qui prévaut depuis plusieurs décennies.

Abstract

Before the advent of female hormonal contraception, men inWestern European countries had a large share of responsibility for birth control through the use of condoms and the practice of coitus interruptus. Despite these practices, development of hormonal male contraception has not received support from the various players responsible for its finally reaching the market and being distributed: the pharmaceutical industry, the medical profession, international research funding agencies and the media. A deconstruction of underlying, but rarely explicit, representations and values, largely linked to an essentialist reading of gender relations, allows us to understand why male hormonal contraception remains blocked in the quagmire that has prevailed for several decades.

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Spencer, B. La contraception pour les hommes — une cause perdue ?. Basic Clin. Androl. 22, 205–210 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12610-012-0191-2

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