Monday, September 10, 2012
Sex The Male Birth Control Pill: 45 Years of Almost
Posted by Audrey Ference on Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 10:12 AM
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Partly it's a matter of biology. The differences between men and women have made it easier to successfully research how to shut down female reproduction, Amory said.
Uh huh, sure, that makes sense. There's a lot of biological reasons men's reproductive abilities are harder to shut down. But this piece, from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2002, has another theory:
Bremner has been working on male contraceptives for 25 years. Research in the field has moved slowly, he said, because society as a whole — and the American pharmaceutical industry — still believe that preventing pregnancy "is really a female issue.""I just do not see pharmaceutical companies in general stepping up to fund this kind of research," Bremner said. "The American companies — it's hard to get them to talk to you."
It boils down to this: If a safe and effective pill is marketed, will men buy it?
Ah. Ah ha. And so we come to the heart of it. Safer to spend that R&D money on boner pills. Which brings us to today. In researching anti-cancer drugs, scientists have stumbled across a compound, JQ1, that seems to inhibit male fertility. The research is still in the beginning stages though. Lots of trials will have to be done.
"This is an exciting step in male contraception. A compound with more specificity will be needed before clinical trials can be done for humans. It does not mean a male birth control just yet, but it is a great step forward in that direction." [Medical News Today]
So I think we can go ahead and pencil that male birth control into our calendars for five to ten years from now.
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