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Reversible Male Contraception With Gold Nanorods
MTorrice writes "Men's options for birth control have significant downsides: Condoms are not as effective as hormonal methods for women, and vasectomies require surgery and are irreversible. Doctors and scientists have for decades searched for more effective and desirable male contraception techniques. Researchers in China now propose a nonsurgical, reversible, and low-cost method. They show that infrared laser light heats up gold nanorods injected into mice testes, leading to reduced fertility (abstract) in the animals."
Finally! I don't have to trust that ding-bat I picked up to remember to take her pill!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
It might be non-surgical but a needle in the nads followed up by laser heating isn't my idea of fun.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term "money shot"...
Forgive me if I see "gold nanorods injected into my testes" as being a "significant downside" in and of itself. This coming from a guy who was snipped 10 years ago with non-working anesthetic.
Do you have ESP?
Just don't fall asleep on the laser-seat, or your balls cook from the inside out.
What could possibly go wrong?
CAPTCHA: toasted (for real)
FTFA:
'testicular injection'
I think i became infertile just by reading the article.
leading to reduced fertility
That's not difficult at all. Diet, temperatures, radiation, hormone therapy, steroids, and apparently mountain dew can all do that. 100% stopping fertility is the hard part. This discovery is absolutely nothing. "Reduced" fertility is not good enough and never will be. "This sort of works" is not a good marketing strategy for contraceptives. In women you try to stop 1 cell from doing something. In men, you have to stop 100% of trillions. It's basically impossible.
Because having a laser shot at my balls is more desirable than anything I can think of.
If a contraception method is 99.9% effective in its effect on procreative cells, for a female it means that out of the 500 eggs she may produce in her life, maybe one has a 50% chance to be fertilized (if taken at the right time, etc). Acceptable risk. For a male, it means that out of the 300 millions sperms contained in the average ejaculation, there will still be 300 thousand standing up in lines at Egg's door. That's one of the reasons why it's much more difficult to design a male contraceptive.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Heats up you say? Kills sperm AND sperm generating cells you say?
So lets recap, acid reflux damage over and over increases cancer risk. There is evidence this is a contributing factor for smokers.
Doing small amounts of damage in the testicles over and over.... where could the harm be there? I suspect they have not found anything that's going to make it to clinical trials.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Did you hear about the birth control pill for men?
A man puts it in his shoe and it makes him limp.
Vasectomies aren't reversible? Since when?
Injection in the testicle? No thanks. I'll take the injection in the Vas Deferens of Vasalgel, thank you. That is also closer to commercial use (human trials scheduled for this year, release targeted 2015) and has over 10 years worth of human testing in India. It is also reversible (USA rabbit reversal trial in progress right now) with a single injection of baking soda & water.
Forgive the puerility, but... Hot golden rods?
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
If you experience Glowing Red Ball lasting more than four hours, seek medical help immediately as permanent injury may result.
http://www.parsemusfoundation.org/vasalgel-home/
Technoli
FALSE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy_reversal
(from TFA):
"In a lower hyperthermia treatment, the morphology of testes and seminiferous tubules is only partly injured, and fertility indices are decreased to 10% at day 7, then recovered to 50% at day 60. In a higher hyperthermia treatment, the morphology of testes and seminiferous tubules are totally destroyed, and fertility indices are decreased to 0 at day 7."
In other words, the 'reversible' (or more accurately temporary suppression of fertility) process drops fertility down to 10%. As an actual birth control process, 10% fertility might as well be 90%.
The elimination of fertility by this method - ie to 0% - seems to be irreversible.
So the process is more accurately a method of male sterilization (for which it may indeed be valuable, if it's less invasive, less painful, etc. than vasectomy); the "contraceptive" role seems to be far less reliable than current methods by at least one, perhaps two orders of magnitude.
Only by the most extreme hyperbole could this be called "reversible male contraception".
-Styopa
Magnetically actuated valves in the vas deferens, normally open or closed, your preference. Want to get the non-default state...strap some magnets onto your nads.
Anyone with medical knowledge know how workable this is?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Vasectomy reversal is difficult, expensive, and only works about half the time. I think it's pretty clear that the summary was referring to something with reversibility as a design point, not a workaround...
You're going to point a laser beam at my what?
I think I hear my phone ringing.....in my car.....I'll be right back.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
What could possibly go wrong... just sayin'...
Will "Nanorod" describe something men want associated with their junk?
Say you do convince Goldfinger to give your balls the Midas touch.
Are there even enough laser mounted sharks to sizzle all the scrotes?
The real problem is that pharmaceutical companies don't think there is a market for male contraceptives. It has nothing to do with technologies. There have been many effective, reversible, non-invasive procedures in human trials for the past 30 years:
http://www.malecontraceptives.org/
The issue is that "most men" think contraceptives are "unmanly" and will "never take them". At least that's what several doctors have personally told me when I was investigating contraceptive options. Nothing will move forward until there is a (at least perceived) cultural shift towards the acceptance that males should be responsible for their own fertility, creating a (at least perceived) market to justify the large capital expenses required to finalize and make available the various drugs and procedures.
GOOOLDMEMBER!!
I thought this approach was proven years ago by Apple and their warmer-than-warm laptop machines. Plus I'd rather have a laptop in my lap than gold rods near my rod.... or something like that.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
A quick Wikipedia query shows that you're wrong to classify a vasectomy as "irreversible".
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy_reversal
Reversals are not 100% successful, cause a reduced potency rate and come at considerable expense (oh, yeah, and you still need to have someone slice up your junk ... twice!). So, you shouldn't get one with the plan to have it reversed someday, but they are not absolutely irreversible.
Yes. A laser to my balls is much better than using a knife.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
As with any male contraceptive, there's one big problem: guys lie.
"Sure, honey, I've got the gold thingies in my balls. Don't worry."
Not a problem. The law is completely stacked against men when it comes to conception. He would be guilty of rape, and be forced by the government to pay child support (even have his wages garnished to accomplish this), with no consideration at all towards his ability to pay.
Consider a woman that lies about conception. He has no parental say regarding abortion, and can still be forced by the government to pay child support. Legalized slavery, a blast from the past.
More Twoson than Cupertino
I'm not sure where you're getting your info from, but vasectomies are pretty benign other than the intended effect. They are easily reversible.
I'm not saying I want to line up to get cut, but now they even do things to help ensure that it'll be easier to reverse in the future if you want. Its ridiculously short office visit to get it done.
Last I heard, Goldschlager was not a good contraceptive, the opposite really.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
So, a vasectomy isn't reversible? Then how come the hundreds of billboards I've seen off US Interstates over the last dozen or so years advertising exactly that haven't been taken down, and the advertisers put in jail for false advertising?
mark
If you can't trust somebody to use contraception when they claim to, then you should probably use a condom - and also consider, really carefully, if fucking them is such a bright idea. Would you trust them to be open about STDs?
Are you confusing one-night-stands to long term relationships?
The fact is, trust can be -- and is often -- misplaced. Are you willing to bet the next 18 years of your income on this trust?
Seriously, the argument "women don't deserve reproductive arguments because bitches be lying" is just shit on several levels.
Did I make that argument? AC posted that men lie. I counter that men who lie face all the consequence, while women who lie do not. You don't see the inequity?
More Twoson than Cupertino
Okay first of all, Goldman Sachs will be thrilled about this!
Anyway, many sci fi movies have already solved this problem. Blow up the moon! Technically, allegedly, that's a female contraceptive but whatever.
Huh.. Looks like you actually came late this time. Must be a first for you.
That's thinking with your dipstick Jimmy!
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Did I make that argument? AC posted that men lie. I counter that men who lie face all the consequence, while women who lie do not. You don't see the inequity?
I think you forgot about the part that women must contribute child support, too. They don't just get a free ride. It all depends on income. With gender pay inequality comes gender child support inequality.
If guilty of rape, a criminal offense with minimum sentences of several years, how do they garnish his wages for child support, let alone garnish them so much that he cannot afford to pay? Getting her unwillingly pregnant is a tort, and she should be able to receive compensation, just as if the man had injured her with his car rather than his hot rod. This would have been enforced by the folkmoot back in the days when killing was just a matter of paying a (rather large) fine, so complaining that one has to pay a legal judgement is like hearing OJ complain about his loss of reputation.
OTOH, the woman lying about conception is another thing. A friend was caught in that trap, but since he was just a graphics artist and she a clinical psychologist he escaped with little payment but guilt when his ex-girlfriend screwed up raising their child.
There is already a long-standing, reversible male birth control method called RISUG
RISUG employs an injection into the vas deferens of a copolymer which can be removed at anytime via a second injection of bicarbonate solution. The copolymer is believed to hold a matrix of stable ions which rupture sperm as they pass the affected part of the vas deferens. Decades of testing have shown the method to be almost completely effective. Because the sperm still exit the body, no immune response to built-up sperm develops (the major reason vasectomies are generally irreversible). I know an injection sounds scary, but it's with high gauge needle and a local anesthetic, and one injection would provide 5 - 10 years of protection (depending on amount of material).
Sounds a lot better (more effective, more reversible, less likely to have complications) to me than putting gold nanorods in your balls and heating them with a laser...
.: Semper Absurda
I'm a fuckin' sadist.
What?
Did ya think I meant my 'nads?
Nah ... Yours ...
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
George Carlin's take on the marketing of unreliable contraception.
I still miss that man's sense of humor...
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
There's a newer male birth control pill that I've heard is out on the market:
a man takes the pill and it changes his blood type.
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
The problem is getting the shark into the surgical theater...
Laser to the balls... that's gotta be on a Star Wars gag reel!!!
Heck with that, it puts a spin on those cash for gold commercials that's gotta make most guys cross their legs.