Most progress isn’t made in sudden huge jumps, but small incremental improvements.
When pubsci articles promise a breakthrough, remember:
it takes a long time to bring such research to market (think ~decade)
most breakthroughs are only applicable to narrow niches or work under specific conditions
real-life results will usually be worse than lab results
startups have incentives to make their research appear as important as possible
But instead of waiting for huge breakthroughs, just look at the progress made in commercially available batteries. There have been many improvements in cost & charge density.
I had thought that another part of it was the levels of harm compared to the problem; getting pregnant is incredibly stressful and possibly harmful, up to and including death as a possibility. A medicine that can stop that but has side affects that are less harmful than pregnancy is a lot more palatable. Whereas, for men, the harm caused by pregnancy is zero, so any harm caused by the pill is weighed a lot heavier.
It’s really frustrating how often this gets framed as sexist, when it’s a totally different problem. I get why people would equate them but they are very different biological processes. Producing a baby is a complicated process, and there’s a lot of steps that we can intervene in to prevent it. Producing a million sperm is, maybe surprisingly, less complicated and it’s harder to target a specific thing and produce easily reversible results.
Men have had vasectomy on the table for a long time now. It’s just more serious than most forms of female birth control, in terms of implementation and recovery, still not foolproof, and not as easy to reverse.
Even more frustrating is that sexism definitely does exist and play a role. It’s just more about the human parts of the process, like dealing with medical staff, dealing with insurance, dealing with local, state, and now federal governments that want to bar access to women. Looking at the pill side is misplacing the anger.
I am pretty sure there have been attempts at temporarily blocking sperm so not having to do vasectomy for decades and it was not yet successful, it’s not like this problem is not being worked on because scientists are sexist or something
I think men should consider the potential harms to their partner in their calculus. If a man participates in causing a pregnancy that results in serious complications or death, I would sincerely hope that he would be as devastated by the loss of his partner as he would by suffering the harm himself. If men can’t empathize with their partner enough to consider the risks to her, then he shouldn’t be having sex in the first place.
So far, there’s no male birth control pill on the market. But there are two types of birth control pills in the works: YCT-529 and dimethandrolone undecanoate. YCT-529 is a hormone-free male birth control pill that aims to stop your body from making sperm by targeting the vitamin A signaling that makes sperm production possible.
Researchers studied the effects of this male birth control pill on animals. They found that in mice, after four weeks of use, it was 99% effective in preventing pregnancies. In primates, sperm counts dropped in just two weeks of use. Researchers also completed a phase 1 human study to test how safe and tolerable the drug is. Now, they’re recruiting participants for a phase 1B/2A study, but more research is needed before this drug can hit the market.
The other male birth control pill, dimethandrolone undecanoate (DMAU), may also be available as an injectable. This one is a hormonal birth control, meaning it impacts your male sex hormones, causing them to temporarily stop your body from making sperm.
In a phase 1 study, participants took DMAU for 28 days. But the participants weren’t relying on DMAU for birth control, so more research is needed. Even though a phase 2 trial is in the works, it’s not complete.
It’s been attempted multiple times and every time the effects are non-reversible and have horrible side effects.
It’s essentially all the negatives of hardcore anabolic steroid usage without the muscles.
It sucks but the reality of it is guys are basically too simple to disrupt without seriously fucking everything up but woman are more complicated so relatively minor tweaks can achieve the desired effect.
That’s because hormonal birth control for women takes advantage of existing biological processes to prevent pregnancy.
Men don’t have any known biological processes that can be utilized like that, although it’s been consistently studied for decades.
So basically it’s like jailbreaking an iPhone?
More like trying to root a Samsung phone with Knox (for men)
And there is some progress too afaik
There’s been “progress” every few years for decades. Male birth control is basically the medical equivalent of battery technology.
I’ll believe it when a pill makes it to market.
Just like cold fusion
I mean… you know that you can buy batteries today, and they’re much better than the ones you could buy a decade ago?
The point is that on a regular basis there are articles about some amazing new battery breakthrough, but it never leaves the lab.
Genuinely kinda wonder why that keeps happening
Tech illiterate media writing hype articles. Repeats yearly also with flying cars or vacuum tube trains.
Most progress isn’t made in sudden huge jumps, but small incremental improvements.
When pubsci articles promise a breakthrough, remember:
But instead of waiting for huge breakthroughs, just look at the progress made in commercially available batteries. There have been many improvements in cost & charge density.
I had thought that another part of it was the levels of harm compared to the problem; getting pregnant is incredibly stressful and possibly harmful, up to and including death as a possibility. A medicine that can stop that but has side affects that are less harmful than pregnancy is a lot more palatable. Whereas, for men, the harm caused by pregnancy is zero, so any harm caused by the pill is weighed a lot heavier.
It’s really frustrating how often this gets framed as sexist, when it’s a totally different problem. I get why people would equate them but they are very different biological processes. Producing a baby is a complicated process, and there’s a lot of steps that we can intervene in to prevent it. Producing a million sperm is, maybe surprisingly, less complicated and it’s harder to target a specific thing and produce easily reversible results.
Men have had vasectomy on the table for a long time now. It’s just more serious than most forms of female birth control, in terms of implementation and recovery, still not foolproof, and not as easy to reverse.
Even more frustrating is that sexism definitely does exist and play a role. It’s just more about the human parts of the process, like dealing with medical staff, dealing with insurance, dealing with local, state, and now federal governments that want to bar access to women. Looking at the pill side is misplacing the anger.
I am pretty sure there have been attempts at temporarily blocking sperm so not having to do vasectomy for decades and it was not yet successful, it’s not like this problem is not being worked on because scientists are sexist or something
Vasalgel, I was signed up for updates, but after about 10 years I gave up on that and got a traditional vasectomy.
There are also medical benefits to female hormonal birth control besides not getting pregnant.
We do have to remember that “First do no harm” is not a universal law of ethics or anything, it’s just the way the powers that be think about things.
I think men should consider the potential harms to their partner in their calculus. If a man participates in causing a pregnancy that results in serious complications or death, I would sincerely hope that he would be as devastated by the loss of his partner as he would by suffering the harm himself. If men can’t empathize with their partner enough to consider the risks to her, then he shouldn’t be having sex in the first place.
Also we have condoms too so i don’t get what everyone is talking about
Yes, but even when used correctly the chance of pregnancy is still significant.
And many people do not know how to use them correctly.
This is a yes and situation. (You should use condoms regardless of other contraceptives, for sexual health reasons)
Condoms are horrible for birth control.
I know I should use them but I really don’t like using them.
Happy father’s day.
As long as you both don’t mind, enjoy
Iirc there are trials for pills for men right now
https://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/male-contraceptives
Huh. I thought the trials had been completed, but I guess not. Feels like I remember hearing about them like 4-5+ years ago.
You’ll continue to hear about them every few years for the rest of your life. Its always “just a couple years” away.
Also, that imply i have to plan doing sex weeks before if i have to take the pill
Same with the female pill. The intended usage is that you take birth control regularly, regardless of how often you actually have sex.
Nature is sexist, got it.
Basically. There’s no biological advantage for men to shut down sperm production, so evolution never pressured a mechanism to do so.
It’s been attempted multiple times and every time the effects are non-reversible and have horrible side effects.
It’s essentially all the negatives of hardcore anabolic steroid usage without the muscles.
It sucks but the reality of it is guys are basically too simple to disrupt without seriously fucking everything up but woman are more complicated so relatively minor tweaks can achieve the desired effect.
It’s more that there’s not any reason for the body to have developed a mechanism to stop sperm production.
Success in evolution is largely accomplished by reproducing better than those without your mutation. Shutting down sperm production does the opposite.