The introduction of vaginal microbicides must also target men

Vaginal microbicides hold great hope of reducing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as they provide women with a female-controlled protection option. The design and testing of vaginal microbicides thus far has been targeted primarily towards women. We argue that such thinking is limited and that, by ignoring men's needs and attitudes to microbicides, the burden of health responsibility will fall solely on women and may increase their vulnerability to the HIV epidemic. We suggest that a greater understanding of the range of men's responses to microbicides may be usefully incorporated into the research, development and marketing of microbicides. Demonstrating that men's responses to microbicides depend on a number of factors - including cultural difference, attitudes toward pregnancy, biological ramifications, and the nature of their relationship towards their sexual partner(s) - we propose a number of parameters that would be useful in the study of men's attitudes towards microbicides.