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

New male contraceptive may be submitted for Indian approval this year

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 331 posts

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

#181

Post by xutopia »

smizell wrote: post #80
smizell wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to note, vasectomies are no walk in the park, and should be treated as final rather than a simple contraception option (though they can be reversed, just not easily). While you can go back to day-to-date activities after a few days, there is still extra time to heal fully. Pain can hang around for a long time in some cases—even years. Infection is also a big concern, so take it should be taken very seriously. Wi…

Just to add, I don't want my comments to scare any males considering the option. If you are at the time in life to stop having children, and you have no condition preventing the procedure, it's really the best option and will more than likely not have any issues. It sometimes doesn't even require pain medication.

I can't help but feel you are downplaying the procedure by saying that it sometimes doesn't require pain medication.

In the clinic I went to they hand you a subscription for pain medication as routine and give you an ice pack to put on your scrotum.

I was happy to have taken the pain meds before the anesthetics wore off I'll tell you!

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

#182

Post by patrickg_zill »

SamBam wrote: post #172
patrickg_zill wrote: post #159

There is a lot of social commentary on this thread. Unanswered however is, "How will this affect relationships between men and women"? The "MGTOW" crowd laud this development, arguing that once control of fertility is in the hands of men rather than women (a woman can always "forget" to take the pill)... something good, as they define it, will happen. (IANAMGTOW - I am not a MGTOW) In terms of total fertility rate, w…

How is any of that different from the contraceptives that already exist? Further, your notion of "Idiocracy" (believing that the "smart hardworking people" have fewer kids) doesn't match at all with the fact that IQ keeps rising in every generation in the US, and fewer people are poor or jobless than they were in the 50s or before.

I would point out that you are relying on government statistics for your "poor or jobless" point - and many have pointed out sources of bias that call those stats into question; and also, you are assuming that the Flynn effect will be ongoing rather than just reflecting a topping-up due to better nutrition and more widespread education.

Others have calculated that USA/UK have lost as much as 14 IQ points since Victorian times. see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2730791/Are-S... .

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

#183

Post by josephg »

mehaveaccount wrote: post #141
mikeash wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argue it all you want, just don't try to force it. If you're going to argue for sexual restraint but want to let people make their own decisions on it, you're going to have to work really hard to distance yourself from e.g. the people who fight against the HPV vaccine because they're more concerned with premarital sex than with cervical cancer. It's really rare to find anyone who merely wants to argue for it. Most ei…

Because morals are a good thing. Isn't it funny how all the real religions came to the same conclusion on all the controversial issues of our day.

I think we can all guess how that came about. Back in the day there was no contraception and the church was at the center of community life. Imagine the inconvenience and heartbreak to everyone involved from unwanted pregnancies! Especially those from teenagers, who I'm sure were pressured into suddenly abandoning their own ambitions to become unwitting parents. Pre birth control of course church leaders would council people to simply say no to pre-marital sex. Sure it'd be difficult for some, but I'm sure avoiding any unwanted pregnancies was worth it for everyone involved, and better for the community at large.

Fast forward a few centuries and that (very practical) advice has become 'word of god' moralistic. Now with modern birth control we have better ways to avoid pregnancy than abstinence. But (unsurprisingly) the church's practical advice hasn't caught up with modern technology.

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

#184

Post by throwaway9475 »

tlb wrote: post #142
YCode wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What all have we lost due to birth control?

Before birth control, it was an accomplishment one could be proud of to have children at the right time. It required stable relationships and self-control. Your family and church would give you a lot of respect if you succeeded, and contempt if you failed. It was a test that separated the virtuous from the lazy, weak, and sinful. When such hardships are made optional by technological or social progress, most find new…

Trust me, the only people with pre-birth control nostalgia are misguided men who are still alive because a) they didn't die in childbirth and b) don't have to have a period every month. I suppose you think that life before the polio vaccine was better too because not winding up in an iron lung is an accomplishment and how DARE someone just get a small needle in the arm without having to put in years to avoid dying a slow, paralytic death?

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

#185

Post by xutopia »

colanderman wrote: post #25
foepys wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't even make sense. Women have the possibility to abort a pregnancy while men have no say whatsoever (in regions where the big pharma companies are coming from). So the argument that women would do more for male birth control is somewhat strange considering they have all the power in their hands right now.

That's adversarial thinking. If the man and woman are in a trusting relationship, the question changes from one of "power" to responsibility. Today, most reversible contraceptive methods (pill, rhythm, IUD, abortion) rely on the woman owning responsibility (one which they may be unwilling or unable to carry out). Male contraception relieves women of that burden.

A lot of sex happens outside of trusting relationships. The woman with whom I lost my virginity tried to trick me into being the father for a child that wasn't mine. It most likely isn't representative but as a polyamorous man, with financial stability, I can assure you that a lot of women I've met would gladly have an "accident" with me. I sleep easier knowing I had a vasectomy.

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

#186

Post by pluma »

mjohn wrote: post #74
Ntrails wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it inconceivable that you'd want to encourage high risk of stds by advocating something that only prevents pregnancy

Sure, but condoms fail too. There is no reason not to use both.

I think what most people usually miss when dismissing the "condoms fail" argument is that while it's indeed unlikely that condoms literally break if properly used (they're stress tested to ensure a ridiculous level of quality so while possible that's still extremely rare) "user error" is not exactly unlikely. It's also extremely likely that user errors will be reported as condom failures instead.

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

#187

Post by nommm-nommm »

sergior wrote: post #125

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.

I don't doubt reproductive coercion occurs, and in both sexes but how can your friend know this happened if he was sleeping?

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

#188

Post by 24gttghh »

ckastner wrote: post #17
ph0rque wrote: post #3

There's Parmesus Vasalgel that is going through trials in the US, based on this tech. Also, a startup whose name I forget is developing the same kind of tech. They were part of YC Fellowship Batch 3.

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.

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

#189

Post by SamBam »

wayn3 wrote: post #31

- I'm not paying money to have needle injecting chemicals with unexplored potential (longterm) side effects into my private parts when the potential success rate is that of a condom. Condoms kind of work. - "The pill" is a bit more than just a contraceptive. A variety of issues, ranging from skin problems to hormonal imabalances are regulated through the pill, which quite efficiently normalizes outliers in female hor…

Forgetting your comments on the pill, I'm glad you say that condoms and vasectomies would work for you, but did you consider that you might not be representative of all males?

For my part, as a man who is done with having kids, but is not ready to get the "snip" yet, a side-effect free injection would be greatly preferable to an operation that sometimes takes months to fully-heal from, or a lifetime of condoms.

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

#190

Post by chongli »

colanderman wrote: post #25
foepys wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't even make sense. Women have the possibility to abort a pregnancy while men have no say whatsoever (in regions where the big pharma companies are coming from). So the argument that women would do more for male birth control is somewhat strange considering they have all the power in their hands right now.

That's adversarial thinking. If the man and woman are in a trusting relationship, the question changes from one of "power" to responsibility. Today, most reversible contraceptive methods (pill, rhythm, IUD, abortion) rely on the woman owning responsibility (one which they may be unwilling or unable to carry out). Male contraception relieves women of that burden.

Male contraception relieves women of that burden

You would think so, but... there are women (maybe a lot of them) who think the loss of power over conception would be bad for women [0]. Read the column. I don't know about you, but it gives me a very queasy feeling. Like there is some subtext that this woman believes she should be able to force parenthood on an unwilling partner.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/apr/28/malepi...

Post reply on HN