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Medicine Biotech

New Male Birth Control Pill Succeeds In Preliminary Testing (time.com) 181

"A second male birth control pill succeeded in preliminary testing, suggesting that a new form of contraception may eventually exist," reports Time: The new pill, which works similarly to female contraception, passed initial safety tests and produced hormone responses consistent with effective birth control in 30 men, according to research presented by the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute and the University of Washington at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting. (The study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.) It's early days for the drug -- which has not yet been submitted for approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -- but co-principal investigator Dr. Christina Wang, lead researcher at LA BioMed, says it's an important step toward effective, reversible male hormonal contraception....

Unlike a 2016 male birth control trial that famously stopped enrolling volunteers early because so many men complained of side effects, none of the men experienced serious problems, and no one stopped taking the drug because of side effects.

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New Male Birth Control Pill Succeeds In Preliminary Testing

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  • by Kokuyo ( 549451 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @06:42AM (#58365052) Journal

    Works quite well for me.

    • Re:Vasectomy (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01, 2019 @07:09AM (#58365138)

      I unfortunately suffered post operation pain and loss of libido and potency that has never gone away despite repeated visits to doctors.

      I know I'm in the minority, but I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone.

      • by seoras ( 147590 )

        Had the snip after 2 kids and my libido went through the roof, for the first 2 years, and then dropped off.
        This is normal as you release testosterone in your semen but after the snip it has no where to go but into your blood so your body lowers your output in response causing your libido to drop off. There's also the psychological factor of knowing you are sterile too.
        The worst part though was the pain from the epididymitis caused by the sperm backing up with no where to go.
        So 4 years later, after splitting

    • April fool!

    • Give you a vasectomy. I've heard it's better now, but 20 years ago no reputable doctor would. You could go to planned Parenthood and they'd do it but the doc would be a third string or a newbie.
    • I have a friend that had one and has had major issues with his testosterone ever since. He won't take TRT so essentially is a different person these days, unable to make decisions and kind of mewling in his affect. It's really depressing because he used to be such a cool guy.. I can't prove it was the vasectomy but I've seen a few studies correlating it with lower testosterone even in procedures without complications. No thanks.
    • yup. Kaiser. 15 dollars, 1/2 hour, no swimmers all set.
  • So? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 )

    All the effort in the world isn't going to change the fact that women bear the physiological brunt of pregnancy, so they simply cannot "trust" that men have taken such a pill.

    • Re:So? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cerberusss ( 660701 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @06:52AM (#58365080) Journal

      That goes both ways, actually. When my ~15 year relationship broke up, I got into dating again. I'm a man, and the women I was dating were aged 35-42, and regularly viewing a potential partner as their last chance to have children. Whenever it got to sex (which is not often because I'm no ladies' man), I made super double sure to wear a condom, even though she said she'd be on contraception.

      And in my (European) country, you can bet your ass you will pay through the nose for a child that you didn't choose.

      • I'm a man, and the women I was dating were aged 35-42, and regularly viewing a potential partner as their last chance to have children.

        Amen.

        Been there, done that

        (then got the vasectomy).

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I wonder if this might help overcome some of the distrust that has arise over the last decade. When the female pill was invented it was very liberating for women, and while things are different for men today perhaps it might also help some men who have anxiety about unwanted pregnancy.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • Re:So? (Score:5, Informative)

            by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @09:20AM (#58365722)

            LOL, all it takes is ONE to reach the egg.

            Not true. An ovum has a protective membrane called the zona pellucida [wikipedia.org]. Sperm bind to the zona pellucida in a process known as sperm binding. This triggers a chemical reaction by enzymes to digest the membrane and allow the sperm to tunnel toward the egg’s plasma membrane.

            If not enough sperm reach the ovum, this reaction doesn't happen, and none can penetrate.

            One is not enough. It is a group effort.

        • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @08:17AM (#58365438)
          In my 30s and it's amazing how many guys if met who's wives for pregnant on the pill. I knew a few that out right admitted they stopped taking it without telling their partner. Often because the mother in law was anxious for grandchildren...
          • Trust me, I could almost look at my now ex-wife the wrong way and she'd get pregnant from over 20 feet away. My little swimmers could get past any barrier put up if they so desired it.

            :)
          • >"I knew a few that out right admitted they stopped taking it without telling their partner."

            I suspect it is quite common, actually (women lying about being on effective birth control). I welcome the idea of it having to truly be consensual- both parties having full control.

        • Unwanted pregnancy is one part of it (and smaller for a lot of people due to the option of legal abortions), but the risk of sexually transmitted diseases or infections is another and that's something that's relevant for both men and women. For that a condom still remains your best source of protection.
        • Re:So? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @08:49AM (#58365590)

          I wonder if this might help overcome some of the distrust that has arise over the last decade. When the female pill was invented it was very liberating for women, and while things are different for men today perhaps it might also help some men who have anxiety about unwanted pregnancy.

          My guess is that it won't. A woman can have multiple partners, become pregnant, and pick which one she wishes to raise a child with. The claim would be that the birth control somehow . Not all countries allow the man to DNA test his presumed children. I'm not even certain that a vasectomy would be protection.

          Yup, trust has sunk that low. And not without very good reasons.

          • Yeah right. DNA testing not allowed? Quit your bullshit.
            • France does not allow DNA testing unless a judge orders it. There are two cases when a judge will allow the DNA testing. The first case is if the mother is trying to find out who is the father in order to get child support. In this case, the judge will almost always grant the request of the woman.

              The second case is if a man wants to prove he's not the father in order to get out of child support. In this case, the judge will allow the DNA testing, but only if the man never acted as the father of the child. I

              • If the man acted as the father of the child at any point in time, even for a very short period, then the judge will refuse the DNA testing. The reason for this is that the "well-being of the child" is more important than anything else... and obviously the mother needs the man's money to make sure her child has the best future possible.

                If the goal is to keep men out of marriage and away from relationships with women, they are succeeding.

            • Yeah right. DNA testing not allowed? Quit your bullshit.

              Even though you are a ra bit rude here - just for you - a link. https://www.ibdna.com/paternit... [ibdna.com]

              Paternity tests must be ordered by a judge, and since the concern is for the support of the mother and child, they are loathe to do that.

              But yes Virginia, a man doing a home DNA test kit can be punished by a year in jail.

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            A woman can have multiple partners, become pregnant, and pick which one she wishes to raise a child with.

            Not sure which country you are in but in the UK that isn't the case. In the event that you are wrongly named as the parent of a child you can request a DNA test, and if the mother refuses then you are deemed not to be the father.

            In order to get a DNA test you of course have to suspect that you are not the parent first. But if you do, there is pretty much nothing the mother can do to avoid the DNA test other than to accept you have no legal obligation to pay maintenance.

            Having said that, I think the trust is

            • by lgw ( 121541 )

              In the US it doesn't work so rationally. In many states, there are limited circumstances in which you can challenge paternity, and if you miss the window (e.g., were living in a different state after the breakup and ooopsie didn't get notified) you can be on the hook for child support. 18 years.

              No modern study of paternity statistics can be trusted, of course, because the issue is political now.

            • Re:So? (Score:4, Informative)

              by fafalone ( 633739 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @11:03AM (#58366318)
              "Only" 2%?? That's 1 in 50. For a huge life altering consequence, those odds are absolutely high enough to treat it as a big deal. You people who claim things like that and the 2-10% (1 in 50 to 1 in 10) percent of false rape accusations make them so rare that no rational person should ever assume that's the case are batshit insane.
              • "Only" 2%?? That's 1 in 50. For a huge life altering consequence, those odds are absolutely high enough to treat it as a big deal. You people who claim things like that and the 2-10% (1 in 50 to 1 in 10) percent of false rape accusations make them so rare that no rational person should ever assume that's the case are batshit insane.

                While we must understand that not everything can be perfect, we must remember that allowing a false accuser to go unpunished is like saying that it's okay to hand out capital punishment to innocent people.

                In either case, a crime has been committed, and allowing a guilty party to escape justice is then approved.

                I don't think so. I fully support women who claim rape and shown to be false should go to jail for the crime of rape, then be registered sex offenders upon their release.

                This doesn't mean no

            • A woman can have multiple partners, become pregnant, and pick which one she wishes to raise a child with.

              Not sure which country you are in but in the UK that isn't the case. In the event that you are wrongly named as the parent of a child you can request a DNA test, and if the mother refuses then you are deemed not to be the father.

              In order to get a DNA test you of course have to suspect that you are not the parent first. But if you do, there is pretty much nothing the mother can do to avoid the DNA test other than to accept you have no legal obligation to pay maintenance.

              I'm in the USA. I'm not certain where you get your information from, but we have a lot of men paying child support for children that are not theirs biologically.

              https://www.abc15.com/news/nat... [abc15.com]

              Florida: https://www.myfloridalaw.com/c... [myfloridalaw.com]

              In 2014, a rape victim was forsce to pay child support! https://www.usatoday.com/story... [usatoday.com]

              He was 14, she was 20. She raped him, became pregnant, and the law says that he must support the child that his rapist mothered.

              Here's Wikipedia on the subject : https://en [wikipedia.org]

              • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                The US legal system is screwed up in many ways, and I agree that child support/paternity fraud seems to be no exception.

                So the next question is what to do about it. It seems that all these cases would be resolved in favour of the the man in the UK, so maybe you could look at how we do things and use that as a model.

      • Re:So? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @07:37AM (#58365276) Homepage
        Even if you're in a committed long term relationship, if your only birth control is the female pill, you're putting all the responsibility on one person. In our case I would much rather have taken on the responsibility instead of her (or even better, in addition to her). Forgetting to take the pill once in a while is a common problem, and some people are more reliable than others. It's not like I could ask her every day if she took the pill - that's a surefire way to piss her off because it shows I don't trust her, even though she did occasionally forget. It makes sense for both people to have the option. If I were in those years again, and there was a reliable, safe male birth control pill with only moderate to minor side effects, I'd be on it for sure.
      • by MrKaos ( 858439 )

        Whenever it got to sex (which is not often because I'm no ladies' man), I made super double sure to wear a condom, even though she said she'd be on contraception.

        And in my (European) country, you can bet your ass you will pay through the nose for a child that you didn't choose.

        It's called "babies rabies". You should flush the condom down the toilet to avoid having your semen used to entrap you into child support payments. This is how some women access men's assets, some are buying fake positive pregnancy tests to trap men into relationships they won't commit to.

        Men need to start waking up to the myth of male superiority and exactly how we are being conditioned by society.

        • by Mascot ( 120795 )

          No, you should not flush your condom down the toilet. If it's not poop, pee or toilet paper, it does not go in the toilet.

        • by MrKaos ( 858439 )

          The very fact that this has been modded down shows us that the information contained is valuable. The fact that it was posted on April 1st shows us how men are being treated.

      • And in my (European) country, you can bet your ass you will pay through the nose for a child that you didn't choose.

        This is true in the States as well.

        Enforcement has been automated (and getting more automated) for decades, and there are all sorts of fun things like imputed income (you could be making more, so we'll assess you on that basis, etc.)

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        That goes both ways, actually. When my ~15 year relationship broke up, I got into dating again. I'm a man, and the women I was dating were aged 35-42, and regularly viewing a potential partner as their last chance to have children. Whenever it got to sex (which is not often because I'm no ladies' man), I made super double sure to wear a condom, even though she said she'd be on contraception.

        And in my (European) country, you can bet your ass you will pay through the nose for a child that you didn't choose.

        And when she gets pregnant anyway? Won't that be awkward. It's something like 20% of men who have a mistaken belief as to the father of their children.

        Fun fact, in many US states, you can be legally required to pay child support even if you prove you're not the father (at least in some circumstances, varies state to state). At least if there's a "male pill" you can have some ground to demand a paternity test, even though that will usually end the relationship either way.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The point is to give men the power to control when they have children, not to allow women to forgo controlling their own fertility.

      Also remember that if you want to avoid children you really need to be using more than one form of contraception, because none of them alone are 100% effective. The female pill, for example, isn't 100% effective even if used perfectly, and it's easy to forget to take it on time, so combining it with a male pill would improve the odds for a couple.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @08:42AM (#58365552)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's a shame it has taken this long, but it's a much harder nut to crack than the female pill.

      • Yes, our investment in reproduction may be lesser than that of the woman whose entire body will be hijacked for nine months, but we still are invested in it, we will still be expected (rightly) to give up the next 18-21 years and a sizable amount of income bringing the kid up.

        You grossly underestimate the impact of child support vs the "hijacked body". Also the hijacked body narrative is a negative viewpoint. The positive viewpoint is that they feel the newborn kicking, get an intimacy during feeding, etc. There are positives that get overlooked all too often.

        • by Creedo ( 548980 )

          Also the hijacked body narrative is a negative viewpoint.

          Yeah, it is. Kind of the point.

          The positive viewpoint is that they feel the newborn kicking, get an intimacy during feeding, etc. There are positives that get overlooked all too often.

          Sex is pretty awesome and intimate for a woman, too. IF it's consensual. If not, not so much, eh?

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by Anonymous Coward

        So, yes, we need a pill too. Not for the sake of the would-be mother, but for the sake of the would-be father. This is a legitimate men's rights issue. I'd like to say it's surprising it's taking this long to bring such a pill into being, (...)

        No, it's not. I'd say it's actually quite suprising that they DID manage that. In females there is aleady a whole, finely tuned, natural mechanism to prevent ovulation while the female is pregnant, and so it's easy to stop ovulation - all the contraceptive pills do is just hijack the mechanism and just simulate the "I'm pregnant, stop ovulating!" hormonal signal for the ovaries. There is no such mechanism for men - no hormonal signal that would ever stop sperm production exists. Men are programmed by nature

      • I just wanted to say thanks for the comment.
        As a man who's been with the same woman since I was 17 and she 16, and never had another partner, I'll admit, honestly - the value of such a pill to men didn't even OCCUR to me.

        Thanks!

    • by AuMatar ( 183847 )

      This isn't the bigger problem, as having both partners on the pill reduces the chance of accident. The bigger problem is that unlike a condom, the pill does not reduce the chance of STDs. That's why the male birth control pill was never pursued as much, men already have a high 90% success contraception technique that also prevents disease spreading. And it comes without side effects from hormone therapy.

      Having all 3 (condom, male pill, female pill) would be even stronger prevention, but I'm not sure I'd

    • All the effort in the world isn't going to change the fact that women bear the physiological brunt of pregnancy, so they simply cannot "trust" that men have taken such a pill.

      So gold digging whores putting pinholes in condoms and "forgetting" to take the pill doesn't ever happen, right?

      And what man is trying to deceive a woman and secretly get her pregnant? You really must be some kind of special idiot. I've seen virgins with a better grasp of relationship dynamics.

    • All the effort in the world isn't going to change the fact that women bear the physiological brunt of pregnancy, so they simply cannot "trust" that men have taken such a pill.

      I'd take that physiological brunt any day over vs what a man gets - ie pay tons of money for minimal rights and visitation. I'm sure I'm not alone.

    • When an unplanned pregnancy occurs, women have all kinds of rights and choices, whereas men only have responsibilities. Women can terminate their parental obligations by getting an abortion or placing the child up for adoption - which they can do without the father's knowledge or consent - but the man has no choice but to be on the hook for the next 18+ years.

  • ... birth control. It messes with the ladies hormones and probably messes with male hormones too. And it exposes you to STDs just as much.
    Condoms are the way to go. No condoms, no sex would be my rule as a lady. When I'm out for the hunt (not right now, found the right one and she's a keeper) I *always* have 8-10 condoms with me. It's the only way to roll IMHO.

    My 2 cents.

    • by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @07:02AM (#58365112)

      Actually, you have to unroll condoms.

    • Not only does the condom kill the mood, but since I was not mutilated (circumcised) the condom cuts so much of my sensation that I don't find sex enjoyable. I'd much prefer a blow job or even a hand job than sex with a condom.

      • Try female condoms. You'll have more sense of moving because the condom is now fixed against the vaginal wall. They also make the whole deal more sanitary in case she's having her period.
    • probably messes with male hormones too.

      I seem to recall the original testing of the male birth control pill ended because some of the side effects were apparently several of the men became incredibly suicidal while on it?

    • Actually there are no active ingredients, it's just a simple 8 foot diameter 2 foot thick pill weighing 1200lbs that is gently placed on the man while laying in bed, it removes all urge to procreate almost instantaneously.
  • by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Monday April 01, 2019 @07:01AM (#58365106)

    "Dr. Christina Wang"

    Sure, whatever.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    If it's an actual thing maybe re-post it tomorrow. I think most people have given up for today.

  • No entrapping men with children. That is why they have sex you know.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This is exactly why I joined the alt-right and now only have sex with other men (no homo, though). Women are scum!

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Let's be honest, women do entrap men. There is an entire system and industry based around this.

        It's got nothing to do with politics, other than people trying to bolster women's ability to misuse both men and children by making it profitable.

    • The internet is large and it's usually possible to find someone who'll say just about anything. Even given that I'm calling bullshit. I don't think you can find anyone making that claim.

  • I can't believe how amazing a male pull would be. Finally men could not worry about a girl deciding to keep a baby they don't want and ruining their life with child support for 18 years.. without having a vasectomy. This could be amazing if it works!
  • There is only one way to conduct the next phase of testing. At some point you've got to roll it out to the real world. I guess I'll take one for the team and volunteer my services.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    It works by making semen taste like chocolate.

  • Every major western civilized country lacks replacement level reproduction already (US population hasn't tanked due to immigration). If real male contraception becomes a thing you should fully expect to see our population levels crash. There was a survey done by a woman's magazine in England where fully 40% of the women surveyed admitted to having cheated on birth control or sabotaged his condom to get pregnant when their partner didn't want a child. More than 60% thought it was OK to convince a man they
    • by mentil ( 1748130 )

      OTOH, a widely-available male pill could help in rebuilding trust between the sexes, which could lead to more long-term relationships and desire to have children. Wouldn't you feel more comfortable raising children with a woman who you don't think wants to entrap you? "Just get pregnant" needs to go the way of "Just get her drunk", and for the same reason.

      The robots are coming no matter what, FWIW.

  • I will be anxiously awaiting the announcement on 1st April next year of the "morning after" male pill.

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