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This Male Birth Control Pill has Just Been Shown Safe in Humans for the First Time:
For years, scientists have been trying to develop a safe and effective version of the pill for men, and a new drug candidate could be the contraceptive we've been looking for.
This week, scientists in the US announced that an experimental oral drug called 11-beta-MNTDC looks to be safe and tolerable, based on results from a phase 1 clinical trial involving 40 men.
"Our results suggest that this pill, which combines two hormonal activities in one, will decrease sperm production while preserving libido," says male reproduction biologist Christina Wang from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed).
[...] 11-beta-MNTDC is a modified form of testosterone with both progestational (in effect, sperm-blocking) and androgenic (hormone-balancing) characteristics.
Before you get your hopes up too much, this was strictly a test for toleration; further studies are required to test efficacy.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:43PM (7 children)
The pill for women has some side effects (weight gain, libido reduction, moodiness, headaches...)
A male pill might be a good thing.
Oh hell no, I'm not going back to that.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:17PM (2 children)
There are reasons why it's easier for a female pill. Females have a cycle based hormonal balance and some of the states of this cycle are non fertile. A lot of the side effects are actually due to getting off of the pill during placebo week. Something totally unnecessary. Actually, staying on the pill is preferred by a lot of women because it spares them from periods entirely.
Meanwhile males are breed ready (as the chinese would say) from their puberty to when they can't get it up, and even then we have pills for that.
So you have to design a selective hormonal receptor modulator. We already know how to do some of them but not one that does all testosterone does except for sperm production.
It's dangerous because testosterone deprived nuts can become permanently infertile in months.
And while the pill is desirable for even women that aren't sexually active, there's no upside for men that I can forsee. It may even come with slight downsides as selective hormonal receptor modulators are tricky.
If it can be made kudos. But the use case is still low as very few things can beat a rubber both in terms of efficacity and because you have to use one for STDs unless you're with a long term partner. And the argument for responsability is kind of moot because you need to trust the other and if something goes wrong it's the woman who gets screwed so they would probably rather do it on their end anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @09:44AM
No pun intended?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @02:14PM
Not only dangerous for the permanent testis damage.
It's well known since more than 40 years ago already that long term use of methylated testosterone ester variants causes serious liver damage [nih.gov] and life-threatening medical conditions. There are plenty of medical literature about it, and the therapeutic testosterone levels for HRT and male birth control are similar.
Oral testosterone is absorbed in the intestine and must pass through the liver before being distributed to the rest of the body.
The liver naturally destroys the testosterone present in the food as does with many other hormones that otherwise would be harmful and disrupt the endocrine system.
Using the a methylated molecule helps to prevent the liver to do its job. Unfortunately even if that helps to maintain terapeutical levels of testosterone in blood after being processed in the liver that has a long term cost.
Don't know about the 11β-Methyl-19-nortestosterone dodecylcarbonate [wikipedia.org] since can't find anywhere any actual long term study proving it safer than other methylated testosterone esters, and are more related to ease of use and avoiding aestetic secondary effects since 11-beta-MNTDC is not 5alpha-reduced so it's suposed to avoid promoting male baldness pattern.
That's one of the main reasons methylated testosterone esters are not uses as HRT anymore despite being the most convenient to use and dirty cheap to produce and instead much more cumbersome and expensive gels or shoots are prescribed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @10:52PM
How could they tell?
(sorry, sometimes I just can't resist)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 27 2019, @01:56PM (2 children)
The point of the male pill, and the reason it hasn't happened sooner, is that it gives men some tiny amount of control over whether or not they become fathers. Right now men only get to decide not to have sex. That's it.
Women get to abstain, use the pill, use a condom, have an abortion, put the demon seed up for adoption and none of that requires any consent or buy in from the potential father. And they still wind up becoming single mothers for reasons other than the guy dropping dead.
If men have the ability to make our own decisions about whether or not to be fathers without having to give up sex, it would greatly reduce the hold women have on us.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 27 2019, @05:55PM (1 child)
Really? Men can't wear a condom?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 27 2019, @06:56PM
Must be an incel to be so woefully ignorant about how condoms work...