Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Monday April 06 2015, @06:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the tadpole-blocker dept.

In present day 2015, the available options for contraception aren’t great, and the burden still rests largely on women to mitigate the damages of our wanton impulses. Aside from the copper IUD, all the birth control devices and pharmaceuticals available to women alter our hormones with various weird side effects. When it comes to birth control for men, aside from condoms and pulling out (neither of which are very​ reliable in practice), a vasectomy has been the only other option for preventing unwanted pregnancies. Though there’s about a coin-flip chance of it being reversible, those odds aren’t enough to make it something guys under 40 typically consider. A few other male contraceptives are being explored, but there are no approved male contraceptive drugs in the United States.

But what if there was a simple way a man to fire blanks until he and his partner were ready to have a kid—without the snip s​nap?

The pro​cess takes about 15 minutes. A doctor injects a tiny dot of a synthetic gel into the sperm-carrying tube just outside of each testicle. Once injected, the gel sets in the tube and acts like a filter, allowing fluid to pass through but not sperm. “Like water might percolate through Jello,” said Elaine Lissner, director of the Parsemus Foundation.

This isn’t like a Depo-Provera shot you have to get once every few months either—once injected, the sperm-filtering gel would remain in place for 10 years. If the recipient decides he wants to take a shot at having kids at any point in between, all it takes is another injection of sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) to dissolve the liquid, and the sperm factory becomes operational again.

It may sound too good to be true, but clinical and animal trials in India have shown that the method works with near-pe​rfect results and no serious s​ide effects. And unlike the birth control pill and condoms, which have a real-life efficacy rate far lower than the ‘perfect use’ scenarios advertised on the packages, the birth control injection, like an IUD, comes with virtually no room for human error.

So why isn't this in widespread use? Well, one reason might be that commercially, there is more money to be made selling contraceptive pills than a 10-yearly injection, and secondly, I guess "needles in close proximity to testicles" is not something that many men like the sound of...

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @06:47AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @06:47AM (#166865)

    Just wear a rain coat...use protection. Or...just don't stick it in if you don't want kids. Jeeze...why take a chance with your junk?

  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @07:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @07:07AM (#166870)

    The old old fashioned way is sex with teen boys instead!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @07:26AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @07:26AM (#166875)

    One night stands are the only times where wrapping it is required. If you're glovin' for lovin' in a committed relationship for reasons beyond pregnancy prevention, you and your partner have problems.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @02:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @02:19PM (#166979)

      I had condom sex exclusively for approximately 5 years, after the birth control medication caused my 20-year-old fiance to have a stroke (not kidding, here is one article among many (1) ). She was opposed to IUDs (vag surgery), contraceptive sponges suck, and spermicide effectiveness is a joke. Would have killed for male contraceptive.

      (1) - http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/AboutStroke/UnderstandingRisk/Hidden-Risk-Factors-for-Women_UCM_310403_Article.jsp [strokeassociation.org]

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @02:42PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @02:42PM (#166987)

        Which is exactly why male birth control needs to be more widespread. Men aren't the only ones who think using condoms sucks, believe me. Like I said before, you only need "protection" for strangers, there's far better BC methods and if you're in a relationship you should definitely be using them.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday April 06 2015, @04:36PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday April 06 2015, @04:36PM (#167032)

        Well, as the OP said, you and your partner definitely had problems. (In your case, it was medical problems that made other BC methods unviable or undesirable.)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @08:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @08:43AM (#166896)

    We have two children, and we don't want a third at the moment. However in 4 years that may change. We may be better off financially, the eldest will be in school, the other in preschool so things will be easier.

    We've just started weaning of the second one so its time to do something about it. The only realistic option is the coil. In 10 years sure there's the snip, but until then we want to keep our options. This magical injection would be another option.