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Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

popsci.com

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Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#31

Post by endisneigh »

brimble wrote: post #25
endisneigh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m just curious what problem this is solving. If you’re casually dating your partner has no guarantee you’re on the pill, so you have to use a condom anyway. If you’re with another dude, you’d still want to use a condom for stds. If you’re in a long term relationship and don’t want kids aren’t there already better options than this? Under what circumstances would one use this over a condom?

For tons of people in committed relationships, the woman takes the pill and they don't use condoms. This just lets the guy do it instead (or in addition, if you want to be extra safe). I'm truly not following what's hard to understand about it.

I didn’t realize people still took pills in committed relationships. My doc friends said a copper iud is pretty much the gold standard.

Thanks for the info.

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#32

Post by pessimizer »

6yyyyyy wrote: post #19
bufbupa wrote: post #12

The problem with male birth control pills is that it's the women who bear the bulk of the risk/responsibility when it comes to pregnancy. If a woman says "trust me, i'm on the pill" and lies -- they're the ones that get pregnant and likely get stuck raising the kid. Sure the father might be on the hook financially, but if the woman lied about their birth control and went forward with the pregnancy anyway it's not abs…

Why can't they both take the respective pill? That way nobody has to trust anyone else.

That doesn't follow. You have to trust people to have taken the pill.

If the pill worked when you took it 5 minutes in advance of the act, you could both watch each other take it and find something else to do for five minutes. That's not the case.

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#33

Post by brimble »

endisneigh wrote: post #31
brimble wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For tons of people in committed relationships, the woman takes the pill and they don't use condoms. This just lets the guy do it instead (or in addition, if you want to be extra safe). I'm truly not following what's hard to understand about it.

I didn’t realize people still took pills in committed relationships. My doc friends said a copper iud is pretty much the gold standard. Thanks for the info.

IUDs or injected, persistent "pills", yeah, I'm not sure literally taking a pill every day is as common as it once was now that they can inject something that lasts months and doesn't require remembering to take it, but some form of drug-based contraception is still fairly common (among the ones not using IUDs for whatever reason).

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#34

Post by hibikir »

bufbupa wrote: post #12

The problem with male birth control pills is that it's the women who bear the bulk of the risk/responsibility when it comes to pregnancy. If a woman says "trust me, i'm on the pill" and lies -- they're the ones that get pregnant and likely get stuck raising the kid. Sure the father might be on the hook financially, but if the woman lied about their birth control and went forward with the pregnancy anyway it's not abs…

Other than condoms, birth control (used mostly as birth control, not as menstrual regulation) is mostly relegated to trusting long term relationships already: STDs exist. So whether this is better or worse than the pill for women engaging in casual sex is probably not all that big of a deal: If you are trusting someone's recent STD panel results, you are still putting quite a bit of trust in them.

Now, saying there are better options in those long relationships is quite the claim. There's a non insignificant percentage of women that have serious side effects with hormonal birth control: Mood changes and reduced sex drive are crippling, if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in that category. Surgical approaches aren't great if you see a possibility of wanting to change your mind later.

So there's definitely a market for male birth control, if it has few side effects. Will it sell as much as once a trimester hormonal treatments for women? probably not, but you are assuming there's no market there.

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#36

Post by TSiege »

Is there any reason that the medical industry is pushing medicinal therapies to prevent pregnancy when a very promising procedure called vasalgel is just hanging on the vine? It is 1) highly effective, 2) non-hormonal/non-medicinal just a minor injection into the vas deferens 3) long lasting and reversible 4) dirt cheap.

It's mind boggling how this has been able to progress beyond animal trials even though it's performed so well and been studied for over a decade. I've been waiting for any sign of progress but it's glacial. This could really improve the lives of men and their partners. Women wouldn't need the pill, which so many of the women I know hate and as a one time procedure is much more error free.

https://www.revolutioncontraceptives.com/vasalgel

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#37

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

TSiege wrote: post #36

Is there any reason that the medical industry is pushing medicinal therapies to prevent pregnancy when a very promising procedure called vasalgel is just hanging on the vine? It is 1) highly effective, 2) non-hormonal/non-medicinal just a minor injection into the vas deferens 3) long lasting and reversible 4) dirt cheap. It's mind boggling how this has been able to progress beyond animal trials even though it's perfo…

I came here to post the same thing. I don't understand what's holding vasalgel from becoming ubiquitous and approved by various medical institutions out there. It's been in the works for what feels like forever.

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#38

Post by sacrosancty »

bufbupa wrote: post #12

The problem with male birth control pills is that it's the women who bear the bulk of the risk/responsibility when it comes to pregnancy. If a woman says "trust me, i'm on the pill" and lies -- they're the ones that get pregnant and likely get stuck raising the kid. Sure the father might be on the hook financially, but if the woman lied about their birth control and went forward with the pregnancy anyway it's not abs…

Not exactly. Women have the power to choose abortion but men don't. Men however are liable for financially supporting the child. The greater risk is with the man.

There are a lot of men who would love to have the confidence of not having to trust every woman he sleeps with. "Stealing" babies from men and the fear of that is real.

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#39

Post by janitha »

TSiege wrote: post #36

Is there any reason that the medical industry is pushing medicinal therapies to prevent pregnancy when a very promising procedure called vasalgel is just hanging on the vine? It is 1) highly effective, 2) non-hormonal/non-medicinal just a minor injection into the vas deferens 3) long lasting and reversible 4) dirt cheap. It's mind boggling how this has been able to progress beyond animal trials even though it's perfo…

Profitability?

A cheap one time procedure (ie. vasalgel) is far less lucrative than a pill that need to be bought repeatedly.

Re: Birth control pill for men could begin human trials later this year

#40

Post by CodeShmode »

pessimizer wrote: post #32
6yyyyyy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't they both take the respective pill? That way nobody has to trust anyone else.

That doesn't follow. You have to trust people to have taken the pill. If the pill worked when you took it 5 minutes in advance of the act, you could both watch each other take it and find something else to do for five minutes. That's not the case.

You just need to know that you took your own pill
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