This is a newsworthy topic I came across earlier this year and thought would be interesting to share…
For years the birth control burden has been placed mainly on women. Female protection for unwanted pregnancy is available in the form of patches, pills, rings, coils, implanted devices… the list goes on! Male contraception, however, is limited and consists of finicky condoms or the permanency of a vasectomy, two methods which have been around since the 1950s.
Despite strong demand, the successful creation of a male contraceptive pill has yet to be realized. While female contraceptives can affect hormones such as estrogen, drug companies have avoided tampering with the male hormone, testosterone, since it can result in a number of unwanted side effects including increased risk of prostate cancer, or breast enlargement (never a good look!).
Recently, a group of researchers led by Martin Matzuk at Baylor College of Medicine and James Bradner at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, accidentally came across a drug called JQ1 that can inhibit a gene necessary for sperm production, causing testicles to “forget” how to create sperm. This drug has yet to be tested on humans, but showed positive results on mice, with those tested returning to complete fertility once the drug use was fully stopped. Qinglei Li, a member of the research team, states, “it stopped the sperm production very dramatically. More good news is that there appear to be no side effects whatsoever. Once the JQ1 was no longer given to the mice, they were back to their normal reproduction rates, and it did not affect mating behaviour or the health of the offspring.”
Photo taken from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100716-sperm-gene-600-million-years-evolution-male-pill-science/
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2006 approximately 49 percent of births in the U.S. were unplanned, despite the birth control options available for women. The introduction of a male birth control pill to the market could potentially lower this rate. Dr. Matzuk and his research team intend to continue their testing and adjust the structure of the drug in order to minimize the chance of any undesirable side effects. Dr. Matzuk believes that the drug will hopefully be available for human use within the next decade.
Although it is an exciting idea for women and men to be able to share the birth control responsibility, the question to consider is whether men would be willing to take such a pill if it were available to them?
Check out this interview with gynaecologist Dr. Sujatha Reddy on how the male birth control pill would work.
Posted by Jackie Romeyn.
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