ISSN: 2639-2119
Authors: Venkatesh B* and Haripriya N
Popular media, street medicine sellers, and pharmacists are major sources of knowledge on sexual health and procreation in India, causing misconception and anxiety. Drawing from a larger ethnographic study on male infertility in southern India, the paper focuses on the ways in which men acquire knowledge about their health and navigate their health seeking behavior when faced with a diagnosis of infertility. Often men gather knowledge about sexual health from sources that are not necessarily well regulated. This information is usually incomplete, incorrect or exaggerated, creating confusion. We concentrate on ‘street medicine sellers’ who form a major segment of information for men about sexual health, in the process explicating local etiologies of sexual health and reproduction. This study contributes to the small but emerging literature on masculinities, calling for more research on male understandings of infertility and sexual health.
Keywords: Infertility; Health Seeking Behaviour; Traditional Healing; Alternate Medicine; Reproduction
