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New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

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Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freezing sperm costs on the order of $200-400 per year depending on how far you pay in advance. Worth paying if you're getting a vasectomy, but probably not worth it for this kind of (hopefully) temporary BC.

What makes it so expensive?

You have to be able to guarantee that your liquid nitrogen powered freezer (expensive) will never fail even once over decades of storage (extra expensive).

I'm not sure what kind of profit margins sperm banks are working with, but there's quite a bit of competition, so I suspect the prices are mostly pretty close to cost. It's all very labor intensive as well; they need to employ a bunch of lab techs, all of whom have biotech or medical degrees.

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bang on. Me and my partner were planning on me getting a vasectomy in a year, when her implant runs out. We've had to bring that forward a year because one side effect is also a symptom of cancer or polyps. After removal, she experienced a huge lift in energy levels and greater stability of mood. I have 2 children so a vasectomy isn't so bad an idea. Even still, it is an invasive and permanent treatment and I'd prefe…

Plus, unlike women, you/men can bank sperm in case you have need of it later.

It's fairly expensive. You're looking at around $400/yr on a year-to-year basis for a single sample (which is only enough to get around a 30-70% chance of pregnancy depending on delivery method and sperm health).

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#273
post #224

This is great. Friend of mine has been tricked by a woman into having a baby and now he has to give away most of his money in form of maintenance. He used a condom, but she emptied it inside her when he was asleep after the sex.

Unlikely. Sperms die rather quickly in plain air (read: not inside a vagina). Even in a vagina, they die quickly if the cervical mucus isn't perfect (because of the acidic pH environment of the vagina) – and it's only perfect a few days before/on ovulation day.

Sperm banks allow sperm to sit exposed to air (in a container) for 15-30 minutes to allow for liquefaction. Sperm actually have a rather long autogenous lifetime.

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions this, although it's not quite clear to me how they differ (and by how much). Parsemus apparently got started by licensing the technology from Guha, then developed its own solution inspired by that technology.

The tech in this article allow sperm through but damage the sperm. The Parsemus tech seems to block the tubes entirely.

Untrue, actually they both use the same system (and almost identical formulation). The difference being the focus on the FDA process and US market that vaselgel is taking, you can see the cleverly worded non-answer on their own FAQ, quoted below. They do "filter" the vasdeferentia and not block it. This is actually preferential as it can alleviate a small chance of pain or sperm granulomas after a vasectomy, also quoted below.

Although Vasalgel and RISUG® are based on the same concept of using a polymer gel injected into the vas deferens, the formulations are not the same. And RISUG has been developed and tested in India over multiple decades, while Vasalgel is being developed in the United States to conform to the latest FDA and international codes of production and safety.

And

only a small percentage of men who have had a vasectomy experience chronic pain (1-2% according to the American Urological Association). Our current understanding of Vasalgel is that fluids can pass through the gel, but sperm cannot. This will likely reduce the incidence of back-pressure. Sperm granulomas are formed when the vas deferens is severed in a vasectomy and sperm leak into surrounding tissue. Since injection of Vasalgel does not involve cutting the vas deferens, this should not be an issue.

Notice the non-answer below:

Our understanding is that Vasalgel works by blocking or filtering out sperm. In the past, RISUG (a different product) was described as working by shredding sperm by an electrical charge process as they went past the contraceptive that lined the walls of the vas deferens. Vasalgel makes no such claims.

https://www.parsemusfoundation.org/projects/vasalgel/vasalge...

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#275
post #222

This is big. This is the future of contraception, because it works, it's incredibly cheap, it has (almost?) no side effects. All current solutions are a joke. Hormone-based contraception feels like something from the middle ages. It has serious side effects, it has "harmless" side effects that aren't even related to the pill anymore after years of intake, but still an annoyance (migraine, headaches, yeast infections,…

Bang on. Me and my partner were planning on me getting a vasectomy in a year, when her implant runs out. We've had to bring that forward a year because one side effect is also a symptom of cancer or polyps. After removal, she experienced a huge lift in energy levels and greater stability of mood. I have 2 children so a vasectomy isn't so bad an idea. Even still, it is an invasive and permanent treatment and I'd prefe…

Hi. I'm against vasectomies and all contraception because my religion (Catholic) teaches they are gravely sinful, but aside from this, I've read that some very small percentage of men have recurring pain for years following vasectomies- something to Google/ think about if you're considering this. Like the top commenter said, another option is Natural Family Planning - the Symptothermal method taught by the Couple to Couple League, which sells a home-study course) boasts an effectiveness rate rivaling hormonal contraceptives for couples who follow the guidelines. This does require periods of abstinence, which sucks sometimes, but is otherwise free and side effects and free for both couples. Another Symptothermal way is Daysy, which my wife and I haven't tried but looks cool since it does all the charting/rules for you. God bless and best of luck.

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a more authoritative cite for this than a tabloid article?

In less time than it took you to type this comment, I clicked on the embedded link in the article: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329830-400-brain-dr... The Richard Lynn they quote, has been published in Nature, amongst many other other publications: http://www.rlynn.co.uk/ The Prof. Woodley they quote, is also a real person: http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/cgi-bin/homepage.cgi?email=michael... As is Jan te Nijen…

You quoted "USA/UK have lost as much as 14 IQ points since Victorian times" and cited a tabloid article.

Presumably the reason that the parent commenter thought it appropriate to to mention that it was a tabloid article was because it used the standard tabloid technique of putting a sensational notion in a headline that is almost entirely unsubstantiated in the text.

You offer as support several links, mostly just proving that people exist. But your first link, with actual information, completely refutes your statement. [1] It refers to the effect that IQ has risen by 3-10 points per decade for several decades, and in the past few years it "may" have leveled off, or dropped by 1.5 points.

The actual author of the study has said that leveling off is to be expected, and any "decline" is quite likely noise due to chance.

But regardless of whether the 1.5 point decline in the past couple years is true, the entire article the opposite of the claim that we have lost "14 IQ points since Victorian times," since you cannot reconcile that with the Flynn effect actually being discussed in the article.

Combing down through the tabloid article, almost every other study refers to a decline of "about 1 point." Your headline claim is one single interesting (though bizarre) study that uses reaction time to try to estimate IQ, and tries to compare it to reaction times in studies from the Victorian era. [2] As you can imagine, published responses to this article from other scientists has been that of skepticism, to put it mildly. [3]

1. http://postbiota.org/pipermail/tt/2014-September/015965.html

2. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289613...

3. http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/nettlebeck201...

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bang on. Me and my partner were planning on me getting a vasectomy in a year, when her implant runs out. We've had to bring that forward a year because one side effect is also a symptom of cancer or polyps. After removal, she experienced a huge lift in energy levels and greater stability of mood. I have 2 children so a vasectomy isn't so bad an idea. Even still, it is an invasive and permanent treatment and I'd prefe…

As a father of two: Said procedure is incredibly harm- and painless. I understand the fear, but I've seen people (even here) spread a lot of FUD about it. If you prefer something else: Sure! If you're merely uneasy about the process: Don't be, it's so common, fast and easy.

Isn't that a normal response to a voluntary procedure? Fear? Uncertainty? Doubt?

Mine hurt for more than a month. It's worth it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but hate it when people go around telling everyone that it will all exactly be the same. It ain't. Muzzle velocity is lower and the ammunition is visibly no longer standard issue. Further, the recoil action is quite a bit less intense. There's a lot of psychological stuff going on in this mind space, and discounting people's feelings about what is ultimately a primal urge is just foolish.

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#278

I wonder how this would effect STD rates in areas with bad sex ed? I could see a lot of people thinking 'don't need a condom because I can't make someone pregnant now'. Not that this product is a bad thing, very useful for people in monogamous relationships.

Glad you asked. So India in general has an extremely progressive acceptability for sex education. We have ads on national TV promoting condoms (by the govt. With Bollywood jingles) as well as female contraceptives. You can pretty much walk into any govt hospital (which are not much to look at) and get free contraceptives and contraception operative procedures. We have a huge govt funded initiative around sanitary nap…

So from the article:

"India has more married women with an unmet need for family planning than any other country, and social stigma and a lack of privacy in stores has kept condom use to less than 6 percent."

Progressive acceptability maybe - but it appears Indians have very poor compliance, at least with condoms. Here's some data from the UN in 2015. India does OK compared to the rest of the world in regards to contraception. Most contraception use in India is by permanent sterilization - which is likely BTL (bilateral tubal ligation).

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publication...

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you step outside your bubble put your ear to the ground so to speak, you'll find the world isn't so black and white. I have a friend who's a family attorney and I wish he was exaggerating about all the fucked up cases he tells me and his colleagues have. Women pulling every trick in the book in order to have a baby with an unwilling partner (of which include lying about being on birth control, and in one case, dig…

You're making it sound like reproductive coercion is a one sided systemic attack by women against men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproductive_coercion >Around 10% of U.S. men reported ever having an intimate partner who tried to get pregnant when they did not want to or stopped them from using birth control. Around 9% of U.S. women reported having an intimate partner who tried to get them pregnant when they did n…

it's not a systemic attack. it's people responding to incentives in the system that is presented to them.

when male birth control is available things are going to massively change, in a positive way.

Re: New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad you asked. So India in general has an extremely progressive acceptability for sex education. We have ads on national TV promoting condoms (by the govt. With Bollywood jingles) as well as female contraceptives. You can pretty much walk into any govt hospital (which are not much to look at) and get free contraceptives and contraception operative procedures. We have a huge govt funded initiative around sanitary nap…

So from the article: "India has more married women with an unmet need for family planning than any other country, and social stigma and a lack of privacy in stores has kept condom use to less than 6 percent." Progressive acceptability maybe - but it appears Indians have very poor compliance, at least with condoms. Here's some data from the UN in 2015. India does OK compared to the rest of the world in regards to cont…

It's a function of sheer numbers. Doing anything for a billion people is hard.
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