Could a Birth Control Pill for Men Be on the Horizon?

[Tank]

Could a Birth Control Pill for Men Be on the Horizon? Retinoic Acid Receptor Antagonist Interferes With Sperm Production

ScienceDaily (June 4, 2011) — Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center are honing in on the development of what may be the first non-steroidal, oral contraceptive for men. Tests of low doses of a compound that interferes with retinoic acid receptors (RARs), whose ligands are metabolites of dietary vitamin A, showed that it caused sterility in male mice.

Earlier results of the experiments using this RAR antagonist were published in the June 1st issue of Endocrinology, and an abstract extending the studies to longer drug delivery periods is scheduled for the Late Breaking Oral Session of ENDO 2011: The 93rd Annual Meeting & Expo in Boston, Massachusetts...

Personally I'm not sure if I were a woman I would trust most men to take this on a reliable enough basis to make taking it worthwhile. What do you think?

[hismikeness]

Personally I'm not sure if I were a woman I would trust most men to take this on a reliable enough basis to make taking it worthwhile. What do you think?

If a woman doesn't want to get pregnant, she should be on the pill herself. I think there would be lots of men who would take this, take it regularly, and avoid the accidental impregnations. For people not wanting to get pregnant, but not choosing to abstain, the birth control should never be left to the other party.

[fester30]

I think there is definitely a place for this for guys who also use condoms that don't want to take a chance, or have a monogamous girlfriend that they're not using condoms with, but want to be sure.  I mean... women in those situations occasionally miss a day or change medications  or whatever causing a higher risk for short periods of time.  Also, for married couples who don't want children, and the wife is either allergic to pill birth control, or doesn't want the side effects of weight gain and acne.

[Will37]

Could a Birth Control Pill for Men Be on the Horizon? Retinoic Acid Receptor Antagonist Interferes With Sperm Production

ScienceDaily (June 4, 2011) — Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center are honing in on the development of what may be the first non-steroidal, oral contraceptive for men. Tests of low doses of a compound that interferes with retinoic acid receptors (RARs), whose ligands are metabolites of dietary vitamin A, showed that it caused sterility in male mice.

Earlier results of the experiments using this RAR antagonist were published in the June 1st issue of Endocrinology, and an abstract extending the studies to longer drug delivery periods is scheduled for the Late Breaking Oral Session of ENDO 2011: The 93rd Annual Meeting & Expo in Boston, Massachusetts...

Personally I'm not sure if I were a woman I would trust most men to take this on a reliable enough basis to make taking it worthwhile. What do you think?

Well, if I were a woman I'd be a lesbian, so it'd be a non-issue.

[Crow]

I personally preferred the idea of the ultrasound contraceptive, I am terrible when it comes to remembering to pop a pill so would prefer a longer lasting solution.

Ultrasound as male contraceptive

[Will]

As long as it's safe, I'm game.

[Whitney]

For people not wanting to get pregnant, but not choosing to abstain, the birth control should never be left to the other party.

Unless you are in a committed relationship where you can trust the person to do what they say they are going to do.

My husband is a teacher, on a daily basis he has a classroom full of reminders to take a pill if one were available to him lol.

However if a pill like this were put on the market I would want to let the general public test it out for a few years before having my husband switch to the man pill so I could go off the pill for a while.  Even after clinical trials there are often bad side effects that become apparent after meds hit the market; wouldn't want to find out that extended use leads to sterility or something like that after it's too late.

[DeterminedJuliet]

I'm not a big fan of hormonal birth control (for myself - it always makes me feel wonky), but if it was safe and my Husband wanted to go on the pill, I would be 100% for it. To my mind, the more options there are for birth control, the better!

[Whitney]

I'm not a big fan of hormonal birth control (for myself - it always makes me feel wonky)

I feel better not on it too...but not so much that it's worth using other methods that have higher failure rates.  Going to go with an iud after I have my first child.

[DeterminedJuliet]

I'm not a big fan of hormonal birth control (for myself - it always makes me feel wonky)

I feel better not on it too...but not so much that it's worth using other methods that have higher failure rates.  Going to go with an iud after I have my first child.

We had our first (and only) child last year and now my husband is signed up for a vasectomy. Once he gets that done and we're officially "in the clear", I swear I'm going to do a jig in the street! 

[Tank]

I'm not a big fan of hormonal birth control (for myself - it always makes me feel wonky)

I feel better not on it too...but not so much that it's worth using other methods that have higher failure rates.  Going to go with an iud after I have my first child.

We had our first (and only) child last year and now my husband is signed up for a vasectomy. Once he gets that done and we're officially "in the clear", I swear I'm going to do a jig in the street! 

'A jig in the street.' not heard it called that before

[kelltrill]

All birth control comes down to trust between the couple. If you have a trustworthy man who you would trust to take the pill on time and as prescribed then I say go for it. Maybe set an alarm to help remind him, be involved in the process etc. I don't think contraception should just be the responsibility of one partner. I think this is excellent since it gives men more sexual freedom in the sense that there have always been numerous contraceptive devices available for women but so few available for men. This takes some of the pressure off women for a change, which is refreshing.

I would like to see more information on the chemical changes a pill like this would elicit in a man. The pill for women has been found to cause physical changes (weight gain, oily skin etc) as well as causing women to be attracted to different types of men because of the slight variations in their chemical make-up.

[Tank]

All birth control comes down to trust between the couple. If you have a trustworthy man who you would trust to take the pill on time and as prescribed then I say go for it. Maybe set an alarm to help remind him, be involved in the process etc. I don't think contraception should just be the responsibility of one partner. I think this is excellent since it gives men more sexual freedom in the sense that there have always been numerous contraceptive devices available for women but so few available for men. This takes some of the pressure off women for a change, which is refreshing.

I would like to see more information on the chemical changes a pill like this would elicit in a man. The pill for women has been found to cause physical changes (weight gain, oily skin etc) as well as causing women to be attracted to different types of men because of the slight variations in their chemical make-up.

There is an excellent TV prog on at the moment called The Sex Researchers and a lady doing research into attractiveness via smell demonstrated this. She concluded that because of the disruption to odours made by the contraceptive pill a woman should not be on the pill when attempting to find a mate. This is because she does not smell right and the hormones in the pill change her perceptions of male smell when she would be in the fertile part of her cycle.

[kelltrill]

There is an excellent TV prog on at the moment called The Sex Researchers and a lady doing research into attractiveness via smell demonstrated this. She concluded that because of the disruption to odours made by the contraceptive pill a woman should not be on the pill when attempting to find a mate. This is because she does not smell right and the hormones in the pill change her perceptions of male smell when she would be in the fertile part of her cycle.

Exactly. Maybe I read an article showing similar findings. That sounds really familiar, though I'm sure it's from something I read rather than watched. It's all got to do with being attracted to different types of masculine features at the time of maximum fertility for evolutionary reasons.

[Whitney]

The problem with the pill is it basically makes the woman's body think she is already pregnant so she'll seek out nurturing types of males over protective males...or at least that's what was said on a show I was watching.

I've been both on the pill and off the pill while with my husband and haven't found it to change how I feel toward him.  However due to various side effects of the pill (luckily it doesn't seem to affect my weight though) and that the hormones from it are getting into our water supply I'm not going to use the pill after our first child since non-hormonal methods are available for women who've already had one child (I think the restriction is because there is a higher risk of it being nonreversable).