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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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...watching the antics of celebrities and athletes as they deal with their illegitimate children in front of the media.
Future generations will not know this joy.
... impotence."
"And like that
I think that the technology/knowledge to create birth control pills for men has been around for a while. I imagine they will be much safer, too, since sperm is manufactured on a frequent regular basis, the pill would just have to affect that process. It could probably be taken as little as 24-36 hours before sex to have its effect, and it would most likely not affect hormone levels.
It's just that pills for men have this one little problem:
Zero Accountability.
Oh, sure, if you're using them because you're in a committed relationship and don't want your honey to get pregnant, they'd be useful as heck.
However, one of the reasons that birth control pills for women work so well is because the women taking them have a *huge* incentive to take them -- they don't want to get pregnant. So, they're much less likely to forget a dose.
On the other hand, consider a player. He may even have pills, but forget to take them. It'll be important to him, but not as present in his mind as it would in a woman's, because the effects for him are not so dire. For the player, it might rank just above flossing as a priority.
Also, imagine men saying, "Honey, it's cool, I'm on the pill." A woman has no real reason to lie and say that she's on the pill if she isn't, and if she does lie then she has to suffer the consequences.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
This is pretty neat, but it doesn't mention how it works. They've been experimenting with the male "shot", which is basically an injection of testosterone into your leg once a week. Apparently, it's quite painful, and has many side effects, like bad acne and more body hair. One good side effect is increased muscle mass, but this is simply a good reason to have it abused by weightlifters as most steroids either stimulate the production of testosterone, or simulate testosterone itself.
If the pill simply increases testosterone to insane levels like the shot does, it's simply a steroid and is going to have side effects similar to other steroids. When you supplement testosterone, your body stops making it's own, and that's part of the reason your nuts shrink.
My ex-gf wanted me to get the shot when it was released because she thought taking the pill was too inconvenient. I think going in for a painful shot once a week, bad acne, and lots of hair is probably more of an inconvenience. The female pill has been around for a long time, and it's side effects (good and bad) are fairly well understood. I think the acceptance rate of a male pill will likely be slow just because it will take awhile to prove itself, and if it does just increase testosterone levels, the side effects may not be worth it.
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It's called "Geek Reality" and it's a bitter, bitter pill.
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I think that the technology/knowledge to create birth control pills for men has been around for a while. I imagine they will be much safer, too, since sperm is manufactured on a frequent regular basis, the pill would just have to affect that process.
Wrong on pretty much all counts, actually.
Stopping ovulation in women is straightforward - you're trying to stop a once-a-month event, and the female body already has a shut-down mechanism built in (ovulation stops during pregnancy). The pill just triggers this mechanism (tricks the body into thinking it's pregnant).
Men are designed to produce sperm all the time. There is no built-in shut-down mechanism to trigger. You also have to stop production of *all* of the hundreds of millions of sperm cells produced between sexual encounters, as opposed to stopping just one egg from being released. A male contraceptive that eliminates 99.9% of sperm production is still useless.
And because you're trying to inhibit a function that's never normally shut down, you have to start from scratch when figuring out how to do it, and live with the fact that a male contraceptive that's 100% effective runs a real risk of causing permanent damage if not very carefully designed.
It could probably be taken as little as 24-36 hours before sex to have its effect, and it would most likely not affect hormone levels.
Hormone manipulation is just about the only way to affect sperm production. What do you think drives it? Hormones are the body's signalling system for stopping/starting body processes.
It's only now, after decades of research, that relatively safe, reasonably effective approaches to male contraception are being developed, and we have a long way to go before they're mature.
From the official FAQ:
Q: How was the male contraceptive pill created?
A: As with most revolutionary discoveries, entirely by accident! A patient involved in a double blind clinical trial for an entirely different product somehow managed to cram a placebo pill into his urethra.
Q: How does it work?
A: The pill, or, more accurately, "penile plunger," as it has been technically termed, temporarily obstructs the outlet of the urethra. As a result, the patient is rendered infertile for a full 6 hours, after which time the pill dissolves and dislodges harmlessy.
Q: Are there any side effects that I should know about?
A: Being a purely mechanical devide, the male contraceptive pill has very few side effects to worry about. Acute pain and a kidney-stone-like sensation are common. Additionally, patients are advised not to drink prior to or during use of the male pill, due to a slight risk of bladder explosion.
The angel in the oatmeal.