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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: 2) by Immerman on Thursday March 28 2019, @07:39AM (1 child)
Sure, but the pill is the only form of female birth control that suffers from that problem. (Well, there's cycle monitoring, but that's so ineffective that it's hardly fair to call it birth control. Better than nothing, but not by much)
It's also one of the least effective forms of (non-mechanical) female birth control, with IUDs, hormone implants, etc. being 10x to 1,000x or more more effective. And even then, the pill (taken properly) is still around 100x more effective than condoms (though some things, like St. John's Wort can neutralize its effectiveness).
Condoms' 2% chance of pregnancy per year is a lot better than the baseline 80%, but a 1-in-50 chance of a completely life-changing outcome is still pretty high for a lot of people's tastes. Especially when you look at how the the risk compounds over time. Use a condom perfectly every time, and there's an 18% chance that you'll father at least one child within 10 years. Use it very-slightly-less-perfectly, for a 95% effectiveness, and that chance jumps to 40%.
They're undeniably the best option currently available for men, but there's lots of room for improvement.
Also, why the exception during marriage? Just because you're married doesn't mean you want to have (more) kids. Birth control within marriage is one of its most important uses - without it you should plan to have a new baby every 12-18 months.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @07:31PM
All your points are taken.
As for why the "in marriage" clause in my email?
You left out the ", etc." part that came immediately after.
I didn't feel like typing out the rest that I trust our Soylent readers could infer.