Narrative review reveals social and institutional barriers shaping men's experiences with termination of pregnancy, highlighting the need for gender-sensitive reproductive healthcare.
Key Points
Synthesize evidence on men's perspectives, emotional experiences, and involvement in termination of pregnancy within South Africa.
Conducted a systematic search across PubMed, EBSCOHost, Web of Science, Sabinet, Scopus, and Google Scholar for English-language studies published between 2013 and 2025.
Identified 10 studies and analyzed qualitative data using thematic synthesis.
Extracted four primary themes: knowledge and attitudes toward termination of pregnancy, relational and socioeconomic influences, emotional and psychological responses, and roles in decision-making and support.
Identified that limited reproductive health literacy, socio-economic burdens, traditional masculinity norms, and marginalization within clinical settings restricted men's ability to provide effective support.