Monday, July 18

New birth control methods to help prevent a new generation.

It's undeniable how female birth control has changed how sex is viewed. It has become something to pass time and enjoy with someone who may not be the love of your life. Unfortunately, there have always been risks associated with birth control in females. Due to internal reproductive organs, physical barriers require surgery or invasive maneuvering to install where hormonal methods lead to potential risk for blood clots, heart attack, stroke, and drastic changes in mood and libido. Men also have very few ways of knowing if a female is, in fact, on birth control at the time of insemination. Due to these problems, there have always been a desire for male birth control methods. Fortunately, these do not seem to be too far away!


New methods include pills and physical barriers beyond condoms, which ruin much of the sexual experience for both parties. Soon, it seems, both males and females will be responsible for taking care of their reproduction so that the issue of childbirth is not decided by only one of the partnership. While these methods will not prevent STIs, they will do much to change the way sex is portrayed as the Pill did originally.


Male contraceptive pill (various types):
May cause reversible infertility by altering the lipid metabolism of sperm by using calcium channel blockers to prevent fertilization.
Vitamin A may be blocked from converting into retinoic acid, which would prevent sperm production.
Adjudin may cause sperm to be released prematurely without being functional.
Hormonal methods such as depo-provera with testosterone gel or injection.


These methods are all different, but have shown promising results in rats. While rats are not always a good comparison to how they would work in humans, see Zavesca, they do give an indication as to how they might perform.


And then the cool one by my standards is the RISUG, which stands for reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance. This is a polymer that allows sperm to pass through it in the vas deferens, but inhibits it's ability to fertilize an egg. It is a minor procedure that can be removed by another injection that washes the device away.


Basically, I wonder, guys would you be willing to try any of these forms of contraception? And females, would you like for guys to also share some of the responsibility?


References:
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/07/02/a-pill-for-men-still-five-years-away/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21505053
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_inhibition_of_sperm_under_guidance

Sorry for poor reference quality!

16 comments:

  1. It's been a while since I've read about male contraceptive pills. They're just not popular enough... Interesting read though
    followed+

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  2. Hey whatever increases safety of intercourse is fine with me! applying condoms, female birth control and male birth control would be the ultimate protection against pregnancy/std's. Interesting!

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  3. It's good as long as it causes no harm to your health

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  4. I'd give those pills a go.

    Following and supporting! :)

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  5. Everyone should try this!

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  6. I'm really interested in the last method you mentioned. For me its less about sharing the responsibility and more about being responsible myself and not needing others to be responsible. independence is the way for me.

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  7. As a guy, I'll say I'd be willing to try this out

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  8. Send them to the third world, places where reproductive rates are out of control.

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  9. birth control is turning all the fish into hermaphrodites.

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  10. It seems like male birth control is long overdue. Like it should have happened 20 years ago. But then again I'm no scientist.
    +joined

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  11. Pills are unhealthy garbage, and it's not uncommon that they fuck you up in the long run. So I wouldn't use them, and I wouldn't let my GF use them either.

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  12. so who uses those pills ? china ?

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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  14. hell id try them. having a kid when youre not ready will completely ruin your life

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  15. Meanwhile it's not permanent, I'm agree with it, at the moment is forever and unhealthy, not.

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