male birth control pill?

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

Hey everyone!

Little question on behalf of my friends :)

Is there such a thing as the male pill that is currently available? This will be her first time being sexually active and she doesn't really know too much about birth control or well, the act itself, so I'm doing my good friend bit and trying to be as informative as possible. She asked me about female bc...and well, given how badly I react to it...I think I scared her a bit...so her bf being the good kind soul that he is has said "welp, if there is a I can take..."

So *is* there a male pill available? If so how much and from where? He is in the US...so I can't find any info for him, what with me being in the UK and her being in Iran...long story, very interesting, some other time :)

TIA

Comments

[falnfenix]

doesn't exist yet.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3543478/

[dictionaria.livejournal.com]

Only if he wants to be part of a clinical trial. It's really too bad. The best sounding stuff is the RISUG, but they're not even testing that in the US yet. There are sites that monitor this stuff, though:

malecontraceptives.org
newmalecontraception.org

That's really good of him that he would consider it, because a lot of guys are "No way, Jose!" types. Which is really insensitive of them to place all of the responsibility and potential side effects on us. Like it's a "woman's job" to have to take the birth control in a relationship.

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

Well he's a good guy all round, even if he denies it :)

Thanks for the links.

[atalanta0jess.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could remind them that there are non-medication related methods of birth control as well...if she doesn't want to take HBC they can use condoms and/or some other method. :)

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

They are planning on using condoms, but she wants that little bit of extra safety. Hence asking about the pill and so on :)

[atalanta0jess.livejournal.com]

They could also use withdrawal or spermicide as a condom backup. If she didn't want to get all hormoned up. ;)

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

Yea I mentioned that too, its in debate haha.

[atalanta0jess.livejournal.com]

hehehe....good. Sorry to be pushy, btw. I get a little over excited about nonhormonal methods sometimes. (*sheepish*)

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

Hehe its quite all right. As someone who can't take hbc I fully understand :P

[loonylupinlover.livejournal.com]

No male pill yet, alas. It's in development but probably won't be available for years.

I would give her the link to this website (if she has Internet access), since it sounds from your post like she has more questions than just about birth control, and this might be able to answer them for her :)

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

I can try and give her the link, but she is from a very strict family (we're talking arranged marriages here) so something like having something as innocent as vaginapagina could get her in a lot of trouble purely for the content :( why I'm acting as her go between.

[loonylupinlover.livejournal.com]

Eeep, scary :( Yeah, it sounds like this way is better for sure.

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

Very, I'd help her get out the country in an instant but its more complicated than that.

[lovekaty.livejournal.com]

From what I understand from my Human Sexuality class a few years ago, there isn't an easy way to stop male fertility because of the physiological aspects. You can't stop fertility without stopping lots of other imporatant life functions. But maybe there's something new I haven't heard about yet?

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Evidently, although it has been difficult to develop a male birth control pill, some promising trials (http://ca.askmen.com/love/dzimmer_60/72_love_answers.html) are underway for a pill that reduces sperm count to zero while maintaining normal testosterone levels, and... even more surprisingly... has had a 100% success rate in early trials, surpassing even the female pill.

It'll still be awhile before it is finished and released, but at any rate there will probably be a male birth control pill someday.

[notsoholyvirgin.livejournal.com]

You probably know a lot more about this than I do so maybe I should just shut up here :)
BUT I doubt that it should be that much harder to develop a male birth control pill than a female one. I think the main difference is that the side effects are taking more seriously when men are involved and the pill therefore takes a lot longer time in the making :(
I doubt that a male birth control pill that have as many (seriuos) side effects that the female has will ever hit the market.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

I certainly appreciate your skepticism, though I'm not so sure about it myself.

The primary reason it would be more challenging to develop a male oral contraceptive is that the most obvious way of stopping sperm production is inhibiting production or delivery of testosterone.

Look at it this way: because female hormones naturally fluctuate throughout the cycle, including maintaining a natural and healthy specific level related to non-fertility, it's relatively easy to develop a female pill: simply manipulate the hormones to mimic the natural, non-fertile, post-ovulatory phase of the cycle.

This can be done without completely disrupting female physiology, since the body already has its own infertile phase built in.

But for males, the clear way to stop sperm production is to inhibit testosterone production or delivery.

The problem, of course, is that the male body isn't designed for a period of non-sperm-production that can simply be maintained through artificial hormones.

So if you stop testosterone, or inhibit it, you often produce breast growth, erectile dysfunction, and insulin defiency, among a host of other things.

I can certainly see why a pill that led to men developing breasts and being unable to achieve erection would be undesirable for both men and women, in addition to its other effects... and the ED would sort of negate the purpose of having the pill.

So what do they do? Well, one method mentioned in that article was a trial for a method that did inhibit testosterone, so men were simultaneously put on hormone replacement therapy.

While the contraceptive effects still work, requiring male users to take HRT while taking the contraceptive certainly eliminates a pretty huge portion of why the pill is so attractive: convenience and "one-stop contraceptive shopping," so to speak.

So the tricky part with the male pill is finding a way of stopping sperm production without compromising testosterone levels or requiring additional treatments to maintain them. That's a balance that's harder to work out in men than women.

Realistically, the side-effects posed by the female pill, including the rare serious ones, aren't terribly bad compared to many long-term medications on the market, including ones marketed for both genders, so I don't know if I agree with that suspicion.

Part of the reason I disagree is that pill manufacturers are still trying to find a female pill that doesn't produce as many side-effects.

The single main reason women stop taking HBC... in other words, the single biggest loss of revenue for contraceptive manufacturers... is because of the side-effects or the fear of the rare serious side-effects.

Based on profit motives alone, it would make sense that if methods of female contraception that posted fewer side effects were out there, companies would be all over them.

And indeed, the push to lower and lower estrogen doses (including today's super-low 15mcg EE pills) indicates that they are actively looking for a pill with fewer side effects.

Thank you!

[notsoholyvirgin.livejournal.com]

Shit, I wrote a long comment as respone and then when I tried to post it it just disappeared. But basically I was saying thank you for all the facts, great to hear. Some things I probably should have understood myself (such as that women have an infertile phase while men don't. Quite logic when I think about it).
I have actually heard about the study where men were put on hormone replacement therapy. I hope they can find a better way, so that we will see that pill soon (like this weekend would be great ;)

I also explained that the reasons for my skepticism were more political/emotional than based on facts. I don't want to take hormones myself, and I have had (and still have) a hard time to get midwives/other health care professionals to respect that (I live in Sweden, maybe things are different in the US). Basically they just stare at me like I am some kind of stupid little girl that doesn't understand what is best for her (and then I get a long explanation about WHY HBC is right for me, and my concerns are just being sneered at).
And of course I am damn tired that after all these years protection is still mainly seen as my responsibility when we are two people having sex.

Re: Thank you!

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

I also explained that the reasons for my skepticism were more political/emotional than based on facts.

Believe me, I hear you there -- I also try to avoid hormonal contraceptives whenever I can (with my current partner, it's necessary for the time being, but hopefully not for long).

And I also think it's ridiculous the way it's often impressed on people as a "necessary" choice -- HBC really is a great choice for many women, but for many of us it simply isn't, and in the past I've certainly resented having to offer justifications for why I dislike it. I mean, I do have those justifications, but a simple "I don't like it" should be sufficient.

One thing I've experienced with any of my partners is that as soon as the topic of a male contraceptive pill comes up, they have without exception stated that they'd line up for a prescription the day it came out.

They know HBC is not great for my body, they know it makes me uncomfortable, and they feel helpless and frustrated that there's not much they can currently do that offers the same reliability and spontanaeity of HBC.

My preferred method is withdrawal, but my current partner is not experienced with it yet, so we're working on that.

So the plus side is -- as soon as such a pill exists, I won't have to worry about it being my responsibility anymore. :) And i think that will be the case for many women.

Amazingly enough, for once this isn't the patriarchy trying to piss on us

[ktnzgtklws.livejournal.com]

A male has a negative feedback form of hormone regulation. That means that when one hormone goes up, the body reduces/stops production of another one. They all loop together in a very delicate balance.
That is why men who take steroids often get ED, breast growth, emotional jaggs, etc. The whole balance of how their hormones were supposed to work got mucked with.
It's harder to influence male hormones to stop spermatogenesis (or get it going again, a very studied topic in animal fertility circles!) without getting some seriously unpleasant side effects.
See post by queensugar about female hormone interaction, and why it has been SO much easier to have a female HBC, she's dead on with that one.
Ugh, I tried googling male hormone cycle, spermatogenesis, etc on google with a bunch of crummy results. Try it yourself, perhaps you'll find something other than science journals or wikipedia. Anyways, I spent enough time in animal fertility classes to know that, at least in this regard, it isn't a matter of "you're the woman, the consequences are yours, so it's your problem!", it really is a physical constraint.

[imnotyourstarx.livejournal.com]

im planning on getting my Boy snipped one day. although based on the post, im guessing their not at that point in their relationship yet. :D

...one day!

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha. I showed that comment to my SO. He went decisively white as a sheet XD

[imnotyourstarx.livejournal.com]

yeah, mine still grumbles... but hes getting it in a year or two, as soon as were married. ive been on HBC for almost 10 years straight... im done!

[reijigin.livejournal.com]

I mentioned it to my guy after a friend of mine got one, and he was like "Hot DAMN I am going to do that as soon as I can." I was happy X3

[silentsneaking.livejournal.com]

C O N D O M S

[incarnated-joy.livejournal.com]

whoa blunt much? :P