Birth Control Pills For Men Are (Almost) Here
Written by Leslie K. Hughes
Medically-reviewed by Dr. Monique White-Dominguez
Women have been carrying the weight of birth control on their shoulders for a long time, and the day has finally come that some of that weight is being shifted to men.
Enter: new male birth control options.
While the concept of pulling out, the use of condoms, and vasectomies are not new to the scene, what is new is male birth control pills, shots, and gels.
Though they are still in development, human trials are expected to begin this year to see how men’s bodies respond to non-hormonal birth control pills.
New Birth Control For Men
A pill developed by the University of Minnesota may be the new male birth control pill. It has been tested in mice and proved to be 99% effective at preventing pregnancy. The bonus: it showed no side effects either, which we love to hear.
Mice were given the birth control pill for four weeks, and it resulted in a massive drop in sperm count that deemed them sterile. But, don’t worry – that sterility isn’t permanent. Once the mice were no longer given the birth control, the mice’s sperm levels were back up within four to six weeks.
If the human trials go as well as the mice trials, then we may have the first effective male birth control pill.
The fact that this pill is non-hormonal is huge. Other birth control pills for men have been tested, but they were able to prevent pregnancy by lowering testosterone, which has the potential to lead to all sorts of problems including depression, lowered, libido, weight gain, and more.
Another birth control option for men in the works is a gel. It has been in development for quite some time and is set to wrap up clinical trials later this year. The next step will be drug testing to ensure its safety and efficacy. So far, so good. This gel is applied to the shoulders every day and leads to a reduction in testosterone production, which has been shown in trials to prevent pregnancy without side effects.
And, a third male birth control option comes in the form of an injectable. Clinical trials on this shot are done and showed to be 97% successful in preventing pregnancy for up to 13 years. The shot is called RISUG and it is injected near the testicles.
The challenge of male birth control
Many people question why it has taken so long for new male birth control options to be developed and there is one major challenge that has stood in the way.
Women only release one egg per month, whereas men release millions of sperm a day. According to the Mayo Clinic, one milliliter of semen can contain between 15-200 million sperm. Not all of those sperm need to be blocked in order to prevent pregnancy, but male birth control options need to lower sperm counts to less than 1 million to be considered a potentially successful prevention of pregnancy.
