READ

Particle 101: Male birth control

Could the development of a revolutionary male birth control pill be on the horizon?
Particle 101: Male birth control
Image credit: Getty Images

If you’re a woman, you can choose from several contraceptives. Birth control pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants, injections, diaphragms and even the ‘morning after’ pill.

Yet there are still only two types of male contraception: condoms or a vasectomy. One isn’t always reliable or preferred and the other is generally permanent.

Surely we can make more contraceptives for men, right?

IT’S NOT FOR LACK OF TRYING

Scientists have been trying to create male contraceptives since at least the 1970s.

They first started clinical trials for hormonal contraceptives. The aim was to block sperm production by injecting either testosterone or a mix of testosterone and progestin into the body.

While these clinical studies had good success rates, they were often stopped after participants reported side effects such as acne, depression, changes in libido and weight gain.

GIPHY

Ironically, many women experience these side effects – or worse – when taking birth control.

Research on a segesterone acetate gel that is applied to the shoulders is still under way.

Non-hormonal approaches have included gene disruption technologies, the use of a Chinese herb that caused sperm deformation in mice and monkeys, as well as the use of a epididymal peptidase inhibitor, which blocks sperm functions in monkeys.

FRISKY BUSINESS

Scientists have faced many barriers in the creation of a male birth control.

Unpleasant side effects, limited funding interest and lengthy regulatory procedures, to name a few.

On top of that, hormonal and non-hormonal strategies require months of continuous treatment to be effective. And to be reversible, they need to be stopped months before sex occurs.

This means an ‘on-demand’ approach hasn’t been available – and that’s considered an unattractive option for men.

GIPHY

YOURS OR MINE?

Society’s gender perceptions also come into play here.

Historically, preventing pregnancy has been framed as a ‘women’s issue’. The reasoning goes that, if you can get pregnant, you’re responsible for preventing it.

Another outdated attitude is that it’s acceptable to manipulate female sex hormones but testosterone, the male sex hormone, is seen as the essence of ‘maleness’, fixed and unchanging, and determined by only innate factors.

GIPHY

EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS

Nonetheless, effective male birth control could now be in sight.

In 2023, there have been two promising studies which may provide non-hormonal, short-term and reversible options.

In February, an American study discovered the enzyme that makes sperm swim. Researchers then developed a compound that blocks this enzyme, rendering male mice temporarily infertile.

In April, American researchers identified the gene responsible for normal sperm production in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle and humans. Eliminating the gene in mice caused infertility by changing their sperm count, movement and shape.

While it’s still early days, these breakthroughs could revolutionise the current birth control landscape – and help level the playing field.

Lizzie Thelwell
About the author
Lizzie Thelwell
Lizzie is a journalist, copywriter and communications professional. She writes about a wide variety of topics but has a particular interest in health and medicine.
View articles
Lizzie is a journalist, copywriter and communications professional. She writes about a wide variety of topics but has a particular interest in health and medicine.
View articles

NEXT ARTICLE

We've got chemistry, let's take it to the next level!

Get the latest WA science news delivered to your inbox, every fortnight.

Republish

Creative Commons Logo

Republishing our content

We want our stories to be shared and seen by as many people as possible.

Therefore, unless it says otherwise, copyright on the stories on Particle belongs to Scitech and they are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This allows you to republish our articles online or in print for free. You just need to credit us and link to us, and you can’t edit our material or sell it separately.

Using the ‘republish’ button on our website is the easiest way to meet our guidelines.

Guidelines

You cannot edit the article.

When republishing, you have to credit our authors, ideally in the byline. You have to credit Particle with a link back to the original publication on Particle.

If you’re republishing online, you must use our pageview counter, link to us and include links from our story. Our page view counter is a small pixel-ping (invisible to the eye) that allows us to know when our content is republished. It’s a condition of our guidelines that you include our counter. If you use the ‘republish’ then you’ll capture our page counter.

If you’re republishing in print, please email us to let us so we know about it (we get very proud to see our work republished) and you must include the Particle logo next to the credits. Download logo here.

If you wish to republish all our stories, please contact us directly to discuss this opportunity.

Images

Most of the images used on Particle are copyright of the photographer who made them.

It is your responsibility to confirm that you’re licensed to republish images in our articles.

Video

All Particle videos can be accessed through YouTube under the Standard YouTube Licence.

The Standard YouTube licence

  1. This licence is ‘All Rights Reserved’, granting provisions for YouTube to display the content, and YouTube’s visitors to stream the content. This means that the content may be streamed from YouTube but specifically forbids downloading, adaptation, and redistribution, except where otherwise licensed. When uploading your content to YouTube it will automatically use the Standard YouTube licence. You can check this by clicking on Advanced Settings and looking at the dropdown box ‘License and rights ownership’.
  2. When a user is uploading a video he has license options that he can choose from. The first option is “standard YouTube License” which means that you grant the broadcasting rights to YouTube. This essentially means that your video can only be accessed from YouTube for watching purpose and cannot be reproduced or distributed in any other form without your consent.

Contact

For more information about using our content, email us: particle@scitech.org.au

Copy this HTML into your CMS
Press Ctrl+C to copy