New Male Birth Control Pill Effectively Prevents Pregnancy Without Side Effects • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by Mirioron » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 8:29 AM UTC

thatjoeoverthr wrote: post #24

Mirioron wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Something to think about before banning the pill.

Regardless whether the strategies are bad or not, banning contraceptives should never be on the table.

>As a parent I find the environment extremely child-hostile.

It might be child-hostile, but is how child-hostile the environment is actually a consideration? The situation for having children has never been better, but birthrates are some of the lowest they have ever been.

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

#172

Post by matheusmoreira » Tue, Mar 29, 2022, 1:28 AM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #124

Birth control pills for men are great and all, but there is an aspect to it where having kids would require both parents' stated preferences and revealed preferences to align, and that sounds like some interesting relationship game theory.

I've posted about this game theory before. With male and female birth control, there are 4 possible outcomes:

  1. Man and woman don't use birth control.
     Conception is likely.

  2. Man uses birth control. Woman doesn't.
     Conception is unlikely.

  3. Man doesn't use birth control. Woman does.
     Conception is unlikely.

  4. Man and woman use birth control.
     Conception is extremely unlikely.

Conception is only likely when both partners want it. When only women have access to effective birth control, risk of pregnancy is dominated by their decisions. They have a lot more leverage and therefore power:

  1. Man has no birth control. Woman doesn't use hers.
     Conception is likely.

  2. Man has no birth control. Woman uses hers.
     Conception is unlikely.

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

#173

Post by motohagiography » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #172

motohagiography wrote: post #124

Birth control pills for men are great and all, but there is an aspect to it where having kids would require both parents' stated preferences and revealed preferences to align, and that sounds like some interesting relationship game theory.

I've posted about this game theory before. With male and female birth control, there are 4 possible outcomes: 1. Man and woman don't use birth control. Conception is likely. 2. Man uses birth control. Woman doesn't. Conception is unlikely. 3. Man doesn't use birth control. Woman does. Conception is unlikely. 4. Man and woman use birth control. Conception is extremely unlikely. Conception is only likely when both part…

Interesting, but the model may benefit from the deception cases, which would have an impact on conception in general, but not just between the two partners. I'd probably include a male paramour case in each scenario, with random participation and strategy in each round. This is to say, I would wonder whether this game is indeed finite and normal form, or at least I'd suspect the dominant strategy does not come from playing it as one.