An experimental new type of male contraceptive that blocks sperm flow with a gel has been successful in monkey trials.
Vasalgel acts as a physical barrier once injected into the tubes that sperm would swim down to the penis.
The company behind it says a two-year trial, published in Basic and Clinical Andrology , shows the gel works and is safe - at least in primates.
It hopes to have enough evidence to begin tests in men within a few years.
If those get funding and go well - two big "ifs" - it will seek regulatory approval to make the gel more widely available to men.
It would be the first new type of male contraceptive to hit the market in many decades.
Vasagel is thought to have the same effect as a vasectomy — but another injection should dissolve the gel plug.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38879224
Related: The Perfect Birth Control for Men Is Here. Why Can't We Use It?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 08 2017, @08:13PM
It will be interesting to see how US culture reacts to birth control once it's something that's available to men. But IUDs [wikipedia.org] (extremely effective, long lasting, zero-effort after initial install birth control) already exist for women and offering them for free to teens [nytimes.com] has been tried to great success (40% lower teen birthrate, 42% lower teen abortion rate in a trial in Colorado), but there's been a lot of conservative push-back over expanding the program. Once it involves men and women, that might change, but I wouldn't be so sure. But the problem being overcome isn't the technical one of developing effective birth control, it's the cultural one of misogyny.