Contraceptive management from the perspective of young men: (dis)engagements and possibilities

We analyzed the engagement of young heterosexual men in contraceptive management based on empirical material from a multicenter socio-anthropological study. We started from an understanding of youth as a social construction, the relational dimension of gender, and the dynamics of masculinities in interaction with social markers of difference. This article analyzes the biographies of 14 cisgender male participants from São Paulo (SP) and Conceição do Mato Dentro (MG), Brazil. They are heterosexual, mostly self-declared Black, and they were interviewed from 2021 to 2022 about certain events in their affective-sexual trajectories. The relational context proved to be crucial in shaping contraceptive and reproductive behavior. Discussions about female autonomy and co-responsibility for possible contraceptive failures shape different forms of contraceptive engagement in affective-sexual relationships. The representations of young men can contribute to a broader understanding of youth reproductive dynamics, giving rise to possibilities for public intervention (especially in the fields of Health and Education) and ways of reducing gender inequalities.