Why can't men take on more of the birth control burden?

by Hooman Noorchashm, M.D., Ph.D. and Amy J. Reed, M.D., Ph.D.

Published Feb. 11, 2016, 3:21 p.m. ET

Over the past two years we have been participating in a struggle to eliminate a potentially dangerous permanent female sterilization device, known as Essure, from the healthcare marketplace - because it has caused avoidable harm to thousands of women.

This effort highlights an even more troubling fact than the regulation, ethics and marketing of permanent female sterilization -- the disproportionate burden women bear for birth control.

Every form of birth control carries some kind of risk, from that posed by the nickel coil used in Essure to the potential dangers of childbirth, should the chosen method fail.

Women carry the biological burden of childbearing, and frequently, a disproportionate share of the child rearing burden. But medical complications associated with permanent birth control such as Essure and tubal ligation are avoidable.

According to the literature, about 500,000 vasectomies are performed each year in the United States. And though the procedure is less expensive, less invasive, faster, safer, and more reliable than female sterilization (less than 1 pregnancy in 100), only around one in 10 sexually active men in the United States get vasectomies, while one out of three women get tubal ligations.

Whereas male sterilization is a day surgery procedure involving a relatively superficial incision and few complications, female sterilization requires an intra-abdominal operation for tubal ligation, or insertion of a permanent and potentially dangerous foreign object into the fallopian tubes.

Isn't there something wrong with that calculus?

The sad reality is that women long have borne most of the risk, even mortal risk, for family planning. Yet male sterilization is less risky, less traumatic and equally, if not more, effective than female sterilization.

This gender inequality is not acceptable by any standard of ethics or common sense today in the United States.

It is high time for all people of conscience to ask why it is that women are subjecting their bodies and lives to such risk. If not honor and chivalry, then perhaps common sense and simple math, can balance this deficit.