Men in family planning: changing the world one life at a time.

While women created the family planning (FP) movement, men have also been involved since its inception (albeit in a minor way). Today men must redefine masculinity in order to become more effective as FP providers and clients. While women have carved out newly self-sufficient identities, men have had to search for new identities which appropriately respond to changing gender relations. The Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona has 12 males on a staff of 130. The male FP providers have an opportunity to redefine gender relations, masculinity, and reproductive responsibility through their interactions with clients, whether the clients are themselves male or female. The male FP providers have a rare opportunity to exhibit a balance between the "fierceness of the warrior patient and the warmth of the parent" in their dealings with clients. Female clients of male FP providers can realize a therapeutic, emotionally-corrective experience. Male clients of male providers can receive insights into women's lives; into healthful living; and into ways to achieve greater access to feelings, emotions, and experiences. The changes at hand in the world demand that traditionally female values such as nurturing and compassion be brought into the traditionally male world of ambition, profit, and power. Male FP providers can contribute to this improvement as they affect one client at a time.