Live data from Hacker News

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

popsci.com

61–70 of 140 posts

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

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or has society (western anyway) for decades offloaded that risk mitigation onto women, so there's momentum to the asymmetry and new adults join an asymmetry already assumed?

No I think actually most guys would prefer not to pay child support, but sure, let’s blame men for everything anyway in a thread about contraceptive options.

This isn't about hatred of men, these are about the facts of why we don't yet have male birth control on the market. Men have had the easy way out compared with women for contraception for this long and sadly a lot of them want to keep it that way.

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

#62
post #14
post #5

There I think are a number of viable male birth control options already, but most of them never come to market. This is because it's nearly impossible to get men to invest in preventing the risk of pregnancy. Aside from condoms, unfortunately the vast majority of heterosexual men are programmed to offload that risk mitigation onto women.

I'm not sure where you get your information, but it feels like you have some other axe to grind.. Nearly every single man in my circle of friends has gotten a vasectomy. Several of us knew we never wanted children and would've gotten a vasectomy in our 20s if doctors would approve it.

That's great, but sadly that's probably not representative at all. I have no axe to grind, I'm just stating the facts on why we don't have male birth control on the market.

Again, please don't make assumptions about my beliefs just because this is uncomfortable to hear.

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

#63
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…

This underplays the risks men face. As a woman, you can take bc and protect yourself against crazy guys who would ditch in the case of a pregnancy. Male bc would similarly protect men against women who would lie about being on bc

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

#64

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?

> Under what circumstances would one use this over a condom? I personally find sex without condoms much more pleasurable and I suspect I'm not alone. I would be open to using an effective and affordable form of male birth control in a committed relationship if it meant I didn't have to use a condom. That said, for casual encounters, this could be used in addition to a condom, just to "be sure."

Even in committed relationships, such a pill would be an extra safety factor. There are plenty of people who got pregnant despite being on the pill or having an IUD. It is a small chance, but it is possible. I imagine that still using those methods + using the pill for men at the same time would decrease that small chance to an even smaller one.

And while the chance of IUD or the daily pill failing is small, it is non-zero, and it happens to people in real life. And the consequences of that small chance not playing out your way tend to be very costly in every single way.

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

#65
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…

> If a woman says "trust me, i'm on the pill" and lies

The guy can now mitigate the risk by being on the pill himself

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

#66
post #60
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could have spend time in actually looking things up. Wikipedia does not have any approved and working method as easy as a pill on it. Also the pill is not that easy for woman either. Don't put us man all in a bucket. You are not helping mitigating stereotypes

You could have also looked up all the available male birth control options that have been successfully developed and never sold within the last 5-10 years. https://googlethatforyou.com?q=male%20birth%20control Wikipedia is not the sole source of truth. You are misidentifying me as either a misogynist and/or man-hater, please see my clarification.

I have not found anything with your link which disproof my statement.

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

#67
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I think actually most guys would prefer not to pay child support, but sure, let’s blame men for everything anyway in a thread about contraceptive options.

This isn't about hatred of men, these are about the facts of why we don't yet have male birth control on the market. Men have had the easy way out compared with women for contraception for this long and sadly a lot of them want to keep it that way.

You literally just make something up and call it facts, how dare you.

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

#68
post #66
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could have also looked up all the available male birth control options that have been successfully developed and never sold within the last 5-10 years. https://googlethatforyou.com?q=male%20birth%20control Wikipedia is not the sole source of truth. You are misidentifying me as either a misogynist and/or man-hater, please see my clarification.

I have not found anything with your link which disproof my statement.

I don't think you really read any of those articles or did any deep research to learn the history of male birth control development, but the information is out there if you look harder than Wikipedia. If you want to mischaracterize me you're free to do so, even though I think we're more in agreement than it appears.

My point still stands that it's not the science holding us back as much as social attitudes and pharmaceutical company decision making. Pharmaceutical companies do not see this as very profitable, so it's likely they are making false assumptions about male family planning and gender norms.

Even beyond that if you take out any assumptions about male attitudes, society has taught women that they need to accept more invasive measures for family planning, and it just takes time for men to get used to that too. However, as much as attitudes are changing there are some men that will not take up this responsibility, and I say this as a progressive person that has to work with many conservative people that have extremely regressive views about gender norms that are too stubborn and willfully ignorant to be educated otherwise.

I'll just leave these here for those who are actually interested in making this a reality and learning the science and history of where we're at:

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6419257/

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4762912/

- https://www.healthline.com/health-news/male-birth-control

- https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/male-birth-control-v...

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

#69
post #5

There I think are a number of viable male birth control options already, but most of them never come to market. This is because it's nearly impossible to get men to invest in preventing the risk of pregnancy. Aside from condoms, unfortunately the vast majority of heterosexual men are programmed to offload that risk mitigation onto women.

You underestimate most mens' willingness to avoid pregnancy. To a lot of men, there are few things more horrific than getting the wrong woman pregnant and being saddled with 18 years of child support payments and the ethical burden of 18 years of child-rearing.

I totally agree that most men want to avoid pregnancy, even if for selfish reasons instead of caring about their partners.

It's not a question of estimating willingness to prevent pregnancy which I don't underestimate at all, but rather estimating to what depths men are willing to go to prevent pregnancy, compared with what women are already expected to do, and this is a result of gender norms. As far I know, what we have to go on mainly consists of fuzzy signals sent by pharmaceutical company research preferences. If someone knows of some solid research on this topic I'd love to see it.

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

#70
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't about hatred of men, these are about the facts of why we don't yet have male birth control on the market. Men have had the easy way out compared with women for contraception for this long and sadly a lot of them want to keep it that way.

You literally just make something up and call it facts, how dare you.

No. I do research on the topic and try to come up with the best knowledge I can find. I have citations, where are yours?
Post reply on HN