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Cut off: Indonesian men struggle to access vasectomies
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Taking responsibility: A man living in Medan Tembung district, North Sumatra, shows his family planning membership card. Vasectomies are a choice under family planning policies but are difficult to access and unpopular. (Antara/Septianda Perdana) (Antara/Septianda Perdana)
From 2016 to 2020, 34-year-old tax specialist Rahan Galileo asked nine doctors for a vasectomy. They all refused.
Vasectomies remain unpopular and difficult to access in Indonesia.
“‘What if something happens to one of your kids? If that’s the case, you could still have more children,’” 34-year-old tax specialist Rahan Galileo recalled his doctor as saying before declining to perform a vasectomy on him.
“I mean, even in the worst-case scenario where I lose one of my children, there’s no way [I’d be willing] to add a ‘replacement’ kid,” Rahan said.
Rahan, who lives in Depok, West Java, began seeking a vasectomy in 2016, after his wife became pregnant with their third child.
“Intrauterine devices [IUDs] can cause discomfort, while hormonal birth control could have a bad effect on [my wife’s] body. It’s too high risk. I don’t want her to be unsafe with her own body,” he said.
Rahan’s pursuit of the procedure is not typical in Indonesia.
