Slashdot Mirror
Drug Companies Plan Male Contraceptive Pill
TamMan2000 writes "I can hear the trolls now, with their jokes about how nobody who reads slashdot will ever score... But, incase any of us ever do score the male pill could soon be a reality."
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Actually, you'd be surprised. Sometimes the incentives run the other way. It is not unheard for women in a failing relationship (for reasons that remain mysterious to me) to get pregnant and hope, that the pregnancy will hold the relationship together. Also, the law still requires (as far as I know) men to pay child support even if the woman lies about being on the pill and then becomes pregnant. Another reason of course is that having two contraceptive pills will presumably decrease the chances of pregnancy even further than either one alone (the female version of the pill has a small but non-zero failure rate). Similarly, the chances of pregnancy with other contraceptive measures (condoms et al.) will be decreased. A lot of its real utility depends on implementation details like cost (the female version will almost certainly be cheaper because its out of patent), dosing frequency, etc.
...this when I submitted the story, but I had not found it yet at the time...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
Where the slashdot story says "soon", the CNN article says the product is "likely to be available in seven years."
I recently spoke to my doctor about a vasectomy and he recommended continuing to use birth control for three months just to be absolutely certain there was nothing lingering in my system.
I like my women like my coffee... pale and bitter.
A sperm count that is 99.9% lower than normal would make it extremely hard to get a woman pregnant, just ask any fertility counselor. It would be impossible to produce a contraceptive for men or women that works 100% of the time... 99.9% is conisdered good enough.