Family planning programs are beginning to recognize that men, too, are vital and interested participants in family planning. With mass media promotion tailored to this new audience, these programs are reaching men with messages and methods that encourage them to support family planning actively. It is often assumed that men have little interest in responsible parenthood. The few surveys available report otherwise. They suggest that many men favor family planning. Even in Africa--once considered the stronghold of male opposition--recent surveys in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Kenya, and Sudan find that a substantial majority of men approve. Worldwide, at least 1/3 of all couples who practice family planning use a method that requires male participation or cooperation. Condoms are used by an estimated 46 million men with wives of reproductive age. Vasectomy--voluntary male sterilization--is a permanent method used by some 41 million men. Withdrawal is used by an estimated 35 million couples. Pregnancy rates are often high, but the method is always available. Periodic abstinence can be effective if a woman can monitor signs of the fertile period and if she and her husband cooperate in abstaining from sex when indicated. Increasingly, family planning programs are trying to reach men--to offer male-oriented methods and to stimulate men to take more responsibility for family planning. For condoms, commercial sales remain the largest source, and sales may be increasing. Social marketing programs also sell contraceptives through retailers, but support from government or donor agencies permits lower prices. At first, vasectories were primarily performed by government programs in Asia; now in Latin America small private programs are revealing a demand for vasectomy. With the encouragement of a growing number of family planning programs around the world, men are showing a new concern over family size and child spacing. They also are recognizing the benefits that they as well as their wives and children can derive from family planning.