The aim of this article is to identify analytical approaches to situate men within the reproductive health processes. One approach is to identify the circumstances under which men ate considered in the reproductive health discourse, the places in which they are absent and present, and how they condition favorable consequences for women’s and children’s health. This can be achieved without necessarily challenging the premise that women are the only ones who reproduce or questioning the relationships of power that underlie the experience of sexuality and reproduction. Another possibility is to explore the relational, social, and potentially conflictive nature of sexualized reproduction. This alternative means of analyzing reproduction as a gender relational process rather than as isolated events simultaneously recovers the specific sexual and reproductive characteristics of men and women. In the article we use the gender perspective in order to explore the second approach, so as to imagine these processes without negating the dimension of power.

The aim of this article is to identify some analytical approaches to situate men within the reproductive health processes, which has been defined as having four basic elements: “the ability for individuals to reproduce, and to regulate their fertility; safe pregnancies and deliveries for women; successful pregnancies in terms of child welfare and survival; and partner relations that are free of the fear of unwanted pregnancy or diseases” (Barzelatto & Hempel, 1990; Fathalla, 1989). In 1994, at the Cairo Conference on Population and Development, freedom to enjoy a satisfactory sex life was agreed to along with the highest level of reproductive health being a factor of reproductive rights. The conference emphasized the reproductive health needs of all individuals, including men–and by doing this, essentially determined that male reproductive health is a fundamental human right.