Objective:
The study describes the social representations of health professionals about the infertile man and analyzes the implications of these representations in care.
Methods:
Quantitative research based on the Theory of Social Representations in the procedural perspective. The study was undertaken at two university hospitals in Rio de Janeiro. The participants were health professionals from the field of biomedicine and humanities who worked in human reproduction. Bardin's Content Analysis was used for analysis.
Results:
The results indicated that the professionals' representations are based on gender issues and that the academic education can interfere in this construction. Infertility in men was represented as a specific problem of women, without considering man as the subject of care.
Conclusion:
The practitioners do not feel prepared to attend to these men. They recognize the precariousness of sexual and reproductive health services, although there are movements towards new care strategies.
Infertility, Male; Sexual and Reproductive Health; Reproductive Rights; Psychology, Social