Exciting times! We’re officially (finally) one-step closer to having a male birth control pill
The rumours have been swirling for years, but it seems like scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine have made an exciting advance on their quest for a male contraceptive pill – successful drug trials on mice have discovered a pill that can temporarily stop sperm from swimming.
Okay we’re listening, but how does it work? Unlike the current contraceptive pill options on the market that need to be taken daily, the idea for this new pill is that users will only need to pop one an hour before sex and keep an eye on the clock for when it wears off ater a few hours. By 24 hours, the effects appeared to have fully worn off.
As for the testing phase, mice were injected with an experimental drug called a soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) inhibitor, which quickly and temporarily immobilised sperm in male mice for at least a few hours – which is long enough to stop them reaching the egg, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.
One of the scientists, Dr Melanie Balbach from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said that if it works in humans just as effectively, men will be able to take it as often as it is needed.
Unlike the female contraceptive pill which is hormonal, can impact your mental health, weight, and can come with many more complications, the experimental drug doesn’t involve any hormones – which scientists say is an advantage to moving the approach forward as it will not affect testosterone.
The trials bring a new sense of hope to finding an official birth control for men, and of course shift some of the responsibility away from women. However, before anything is officially available for prescription, it’ll have to undergo a lot of testing. Further tests are planned, moving to rabbits before people.
Allan Pacey, a professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield told the BBC: “There is a pressing need for an effective, reversible, oral contraceptive for men and although many different approaches have been tested over the years, none has yet reached the market.
“If the trials on mice can be replicated in humans with the same degree of efficacy, then this could well be the male contraceptive approach we have been looking for.”
Jochen Buck, who co-direct the Weill Cornell laboratory with Lonny Levin, are also looking into creating a more optimal drug that prevents pregnancy for 12 hours and can be taken as a pill rather than as an injection.
So, a male contraceptive pill may be on the horizon (soon-ish) after all…
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