What do guys know about their partners' birth control?

Are guys clueless about birth control? A few studies have suggested that men typically know less about birth control than women, but there’s actually not a ton of research on the subject. Now a new national study sheds some light on this question.

Many guys said they knew what birth control their partner used

The study looked at men ages 15-44 in the U.S. who weren’t married or living with their partner and who weren’t trying for a pregnancy. The glass-half-full headline is that many of the men in this group knew what birth control their last sex partner used.

The most popular methods the men in the study reported partners using were condoms (30%) and the pill (35%). The next largest group (17%) said they didn’t use birth control at all. Between 2 and 5% said their partner used sterilization, an IUD, the shot, or the ring.

Men in the study who had only hooked up once or just started a new relationship were the least likely to know what birth control method a partner had used. (We know what Guy Nottadadi would have to say about that.)

At least they thought they knew

The glass-half-empty headline is that just because men were able to answer a survey question about their partner’s birth control doesn’t mean their answers were accurate. It might be more true to say that many guys thought they knew what birth control their partner used. But to know whether men actually know what birth control method(s) their partner uses, we’d need a totally different kind of study—one that talks to both partners.