Compared to women, the methods that men can apply in this sense are quite limited and risky. While condoms cannot function from time to time, the vasectomy procedure requires painstaking surgical procedures and causes permanent sterilization.
At this point, scientists state that it will be possible to use a few more alternatives in the near future, in addition to these known birth control methods for men, so that men can be as effective as women in contraception.
First of all, successful reproduction for men begins with the successful interaction of hormones, especially testosterone. Hormones send signals to the body for sperm production, a process called permatogenesis.
After a male reaches puberty, he enters a continuous cycle of regeneration processes, and it takes about 74 days for sperm to develop and mature. Mature sperm are collected in the testicles, a regularly restocked storehouse of reproductive material.
When the man ejaculates, more than 250 million sperm leave the testicles and search for eggs for fertilization. If these sperm find themselves inside a vagina, they move towards the uterus where they encounter a healthy and fertile egg, which results in pregnancy.
While female birth control tries to prevent the process that produces one to two fertile eggs a month, male birth control has to aim to stop millions of sperm.
Scientists continue to work on pills, gels and implants without slowing down so that men as well as women can take on the responsibility of birth control.
Moreover, these alternatives, which can be used in the future, are much more useful and safe than condoms; For men, it promises a temporary control in the desired process, rather than a vasectomy, which causes permanent sterility. Also, some of these apps are being developed without hormones that cause uncomfortable side effects for women.
“I see this as a big shift in equity,” says Heather Vadhat, who has been working on birth control options for men for many years. expresses it in a sentence.
Gels, one of the alternatives for men’s hormonal contraception, are among the applications that are most likely to be widely used in the near future.
This gel contains a synthetic female hormone called progesterone, which reduces the male reproductive hormone testosterone to a level where it can no longer produce sperm. The gel is applied daily to the man’s shoulders and arms and absorbed by the skin. As long as the person continues to use this gel, the birth control hormones that cause infertility begin to be released.
Researcher Christina Wang, who continues her studies on the subject, states that direct contact with the gel has few side effects and the results are really promising. In addition, this gel contains a small amount of testosterone that is added back into the body to prevent side effects such as low libido, while contributing to testosterone levels that are too low to produce sperm.
According to a 2012 study, this gel was tested on 99 men and found that 90% of them experienced temporary infertility.
Some of the participants experienced similar side effects, such as weight gain, low libido, acne, and mood swings, just as women experience during birth control processes, but although these effects persist, Wang, who continues to work to achieve the main goal, tested over 400 pairs of this gel. continues to do research.
The researcher suggests that the men who take part in the tests will be evaluated over the next 3 years and this method will become widespread by about 2030.
Another alternative that continues to be researched in this regard is pills.
Just as women continue to use it, research continues that a birth control pill that can be taken about 30 minutes before sexual intercourse in men and whose effects will go away after about a day, will be promising in this sense.
The drug works by targeting an enzyme called soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC), and when this enzyme is suppressed, sperm can’t get beyond the vagina. Scientists first administered this experimental drug to mice, and the mice were spayed 15 minutes after taking the drug. After two hours, the drug wore off and the fertility levels of the mice returned to normal.
Researchers hope to test these pills on humans in the next 2-3 years, and say it may take 10 years for these trials to yield results that will make the drug market-ready.
While the stereotype persists that men won’t be willing to use any form of contraception and that women won’t trust them, this hypothesis was completely refuted in a survey shared by the World Health Organization in 2022.
A global survey of 5,000 people found that most men are willing to try contraception. The least enthusiastic participants were in the USA, while the most excited were in Nigeria.
About 40% of men in the US said they would try these contraceptive options as soon as they became available, while 80% of men in Nigeria were much more interested in it, and Nigerians said it was too late to develop such alternatives for men as well as women. he did.
Scientists continue to work to develop various birth control alternatives, aiming to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
The researchers, who continue their studies and tests on this subject every day we are in, state that at the current point, men can also be effective in contraception with pill and gel forms very soon.
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