As the birth control pill enters the 65th year of its existence, it may find itself being gifted an unexpected partner — Male Contraceptive Pill. For decades women have borne the burden of birth control.
To their share has been the burden of recurrent spending on oral contraception, the possible hormonal side effects; or alternately, the wearing of an IUD causing possible discomfort in rare cases, or going through an abortion in case of lack of contraception or contraceptive failure.
Even when the male has taken responsibility for contraception, the fear of an unwanted pregnancy never really vanishes, given the high failure rate of 16 per cent, in condom use. And vasectomy, though much more a simplified procedure now than earlier, remains the informed, irreversible choice of a few.
New research
However, advances in the results of the controlled tests that are being carried out in America where the Male Pill has been conceived (pun intended) are indicative of a time when women can breathe easier and stop worrying about ways to avoid getting pregnant.
The non-hormonal Male Pill aims at temporarily reducing or halting the production of sperm; and, according to pre-clinical trials, “the researchers are not seeing the kind of mood swings and depression that women can experience with birth control pills.”
So far so good. But there’s more good news to share all around.
Also at research and trial stage is a gel that acts as a contraceptive for male use.
Simpler than the Pill, it consists of a gel that can be rubbed into the man’s shoulders every morning, and results in stopping the production of sperm in the testes. The formulation is a result of work that has been underway since 2005 at the National Institutes of Health in America, under the Contraceptive Development Programme.
In a presentation made by Dr. Diana Blithe, chief of the Contraceptive Development Programme, at the annual meeting of the Endrocine Society held in Boston in June, she added that the results of recent tests conducted on 300 couples indicated to the researchers that, ‘they think they have got it right.’
Magic gel?
Advantages of the gel include the fact that it is easy to adapt it as part of the daily routine, as a step to be added after brushing the teeth or showering.
More important: missing a day or two is not as risky as when a woman misses her daily Pill, as once sperm production is fully stopped, it takes a few weeks to restart.
Also heartening is the fact that many men who were part of the test went back to become fathers, proving the gel is fully reversible.
The request from some male subjects to continue with the gel for a second span of time, proves that the chances of acceptance are high.
However, one must wait still for this project to get the required approvals and become a marketable reality. Hopefully, the idea can trigger research in our own country and bear safe and dependable results.
Getting the Indian male to literally shoulder the responsibility of birth control will be the next vital step. The happy ‘side effect’ that was noted in the trials of the gel that using it increased libido, might be a persuasive aspect in that effort.
The writer is a Consulting Editor with Penguin India