Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

scitechdaily.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 173 posts

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#21

Post by Mirioron »

thatjoeoverthr wrote: post #13
timmg wrote: post #4

In Western countries and in Asia, fertility rates are pretty (edit: low) these days. I fear they would collapse with the introduction of a male fertility pill. In some sense, maybe that's not bad. The world is probably overpopulated. But if fertility drops too fast it creates real demographics problems in that few young people need to support many old people.

We shouldn’t rely on unplanned pregnancies for the birth rates. There are other strategies.

The other strategies are clearly not working though. Birth rates have at best stayed steady or declined.

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#22

Post by Archelaos »

timmg wrote: post #4

In Western countries and in Asia, fertility rates are pretty (edit: low) these days. I fear they would collapse with the introduction of a male fertility pill. In some sense, maybe that's not bad. The world is probably overpopulated. But if fertility drops too fast it creates real demographics problems in that few young people need to support many old people.

> it creates real demographics problems in that few young people need to support many old people

I think this problem is overrated, because at the same time they need to support many less children, youth and young adults. In other words, the ratio `adult workforce` vs. (`retired` + `children` + `in education`) is decreasing only very slowly. And we need a price tag for each of these elements to better assess its impact: How expensive is education and child care per person per year compared to pensions per person per year?

The figure that really matters for the future is purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita. This figure has been rising steadily in most industrialized countries for most of the years. There are no signs that this will change, even if birth rates continue to decline. This means that, regardless the demographic trend, more goods and services are available to everyone on average every year. The real problem is to stop the trend that only part of society benefits from economic growth.

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#23

Post by mensetmanusman »

goda90 wrote: post #5

What happens to YCT529 when it's used up or if more than is used up in the body is taken? Is excess urinated out? What impact does that have on the environment?

If the body broke it down it wouldn’t be effective, so it would pass through and be expelled like most everything else the body is confused what to do with.

Anything that affects mammalian fertility can have downstream effects unless the molecule is particularly unstable. Instability however is contrary to a birth control business model, as it introduces uncertainty (see: biodegradable conditions).

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#24

Post by thatjoeoverthr »

Mirioron wrote: post #21
thatjoeoverthr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shouldn’t rely on unplanned pregnancies for the birth rates. There are other strategies.

The other strategies are clearly not working though. Birth rates have at best stayed steady or declined.

What if they’re actually dumb and we need other other strategies? Something to think about before banning the pill.

As a parent I find the environment extremely child-hostile. I don’t want to go into it here, I’m just pointing out there’s a lot of work one could do besides blocking a certain gender from equal access to birth control pills.

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#26

Post by timmg »

captainmuon wrote: post #11
timmg wrote: post #4

In Western countries and in Asia, fertility rates are pretty (edit: low) these days. I fear they would collapse with the introduction of a male fertility pill. In some sense, maybe that's not bad. The world is probably overpopulated. But if fertility drops too fast it creates real demographics problems in that few young people need to support many old people.

Why? That would only be the case if a significant number of pregnancies is unwanted. We should do everything to stop any unwanted pregnancies, and then add incentives and aid for everybody who wants to have kids (e.g. parental leave, free daycare, and so on).

A random google finds this: https://www.brookings.edu/research/preventing-unplanned-preg...

> Unintended pregnancies are at an all-time low in the U.S. but still represent about 45 percent of all pregnancies.

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#27

Post by everdrive »

Mirioron wrote: post #21
thatjoeoverthr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We shouldn’t rely on unplanned pregnancies for the birth rates. There are other strategies.

The other strategies are clearly not working though. Birth rates have at best stayed steady or declined.

The rough transition aside, would it be so bad to return to lower population levels? The only thing I'm sad about is that I won't live to see the population decline rather than increase.

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#28

Post by k0k0r0 »

timmg wrote: post #4

In Western countries and in Asia, fertility rates are pretty (edit: low) these days. I fear they would collapse with the introduction of a male fertility pill. In some sense, maybe that's not bad. The world is probably overpopulated. But if fertility drops too fast it creates real demographics problems in that few young people need to support many old people.

These demographic problems seem to be there arleady. Even without any further drops in the reproduction rate. At least in my country from central europe. I cannot provide any scientific discussion as a source - indeed I'd be happy if someone could share some source, but it seems pretty obvious to me. Generation baby boomer chose career over family and soon they need to be taken care of whilst they didn't produce many children themselves that could do so.

And partially related: they chose personal weahlth over a healthy planet. At least I feel betrayed, and I guess I am not the only one. So these demographic problems might be accompanied by a change of the younger generation priorities, when confronted with both, a huge old generation that they couldn't care for, even if they wanted to and even if there wouldn't be any further crisis, and a climate crisis caused by the same old generation that is now dependent on them.

Re: New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects

#29

Post by xenocratus »

Archelaos wrote: post #22
timmg wrote: post #4

In Western countries and in Asia, fertility rates are pretty (edit: low) these days. I fear they would collapse with the introduction of a male fertility pill. In some sense, maybe that's not bad. The world is probably overpopulated. But if fertility drops too fast it creates real demographics problems in that few young people need to support many old people.

> it creates real demographics problems in that few young people need to support many old people I think this problem is overrated, because at the same time they need to support many less children, youth and young adults. In other words, the ratio `adult workforce` vs. (`retired` + `children` + `in education`) is decreasing only very slowly. And we need a price tag for each of these elements to better assess its impa…

Just chiming in to say that money isn't the only problem. You also need to restructure your healthcare system, for example, to account for more geriatrics and less pediatrics. We'd also need more carers, but presumably some proportion of teachers and babysitters could swap to that. But if you think about it, childcare is now a part-time job for many parents working other full-time jobs in engineering, law, accounting etc. Would they be caring for their elderly parents instead, to the same degree, or would we need a lot more professional carers for it?

Anyway, my point is that it's more complex than just comparing cash for this vs cash for that, we'll have to coordinate broad policies for a change like this. I think this is already happening in the West, but rather slowly.

Post reply on HN