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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 snap?
The process 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-perfect results and no serious side 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...
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday April 06 2015, @07:12PM
You need to move out of the sticks then. Even in this crappy conservative city I live in now, I've got a very attractive 30-something female for my GP.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 06 2015, @08:26PM
Mmmmm. I'll admit that I would rather undress in front of a female than a male, if I must undress. But - you suggest that I move to a different region of the country, so that I can find a female doctor?
Isn't that a sexist attitude? Seems to me no less sexist than assuming a female doctor must be less competent than a male doctor.
Just think about that for awhile, alright?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday April 07 2015, @12:25AM
So are you saying it's "sexist" for me, as a heterosexual male, to prefer courting women as lovers, and that I should give equal energy to courting men?
Just think about that for awhile, alright?
No, I don't think it's sexist at all for me to prefer having attractive women handling my private parts, whether it's in the doctor's office or in my bedroom. It has nothing to do with competence.
(Score: 1) by Bogsnoticus on Tuesday April 07 2015, @02:23AM
I have had zero problems dropping trou in front of both male and female doctors. But when its the choice of being prudish, or having bladder cancer dealt with, being a prude takes a back seat.
The only time there was a "problem", was when they had the youngest, and cutest nurse remove the catheter following the surgery. I couldn't help myself, and kept saying shit like "You do realise most women insist I take them out for dinner and dancing before they put their hands in my crotch.", and "Can you take away the pain, but leave the swelling?". What normally would have taken only a minute or two, took about half asn hour due to the amount of giggling incurred.
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.