Sick of birth control's side-effects? Had enough with the bloating, lack of sexual appetite and risk of blood clot? Simply forgetting to take it? No, there isn't a new super-pill for women - its better.
Now there's birth control for men.
Currently undergoing trials in Sydney, the twice-monthly injection of testosterone and progestin tricks the male mind into believing that enough sperm has already been produced. (Funny, I've never needed such elaborate science to trick male minds.) And according to the city's Daily Telegraph, studies have shown that the proposed treatment is 95% effective, about the same as the pill for women, and men are able to impregnate three months after they stop. Even better, lead researcher Rob McLachlan told them that it shouldn't change the man's sex life, because the "level of testosterone in the blood remains the same." Not a bad deal. We don't get pregnant, and they can deal with the side-effects - whatever those turn out to be.
Honestly I'm not a fan of the pill for myself - I hardly even take Advil. I tried the prescription briefly in high school; as a sexually active young woman in a monogamous relationship with a healthy young man, it seemed like a reasonable idea. But when we broke up I opted out. The very thought tinkering with my reproductive organs on a scheduled basis seemed unnatural and, since I was single, unnecessary. When subsequent boyfriends asked me to reconsider, I'd tell them I'd take care of the birth control - and hand them a box of Trojans.
But now the "pill for men" adds another option. The trials, conducted by the ANZAC Research Institute in Australia, with funding from CONRAD, an American reproductive health and HIV prevention agency, has been working on this project since the 1990s. In 2003 they published a proof of principle study, and are now embarking on its second phase of testing. According to their Andrology Department's website, they're not worried about a buyer once tests are concluded. "The proof of principle re-kindled the faltering interest of major multinational pharmaceutical trials in developing a marketable product that will exploit this approach for an effective, reversible male hormonal contraceptive."
It could take years for the drug to be on the American market, but at least there's plausible hope. So he next time a man suggests that you regulate your reproductive organs with ingestible chemicals, there's the perfect response: you do it, honey.
