Contraceptive. Photo: GARO (Getty).
There’s a new contraceptive in town (well, not now, but possibly soon) and it aims to put the responsibility of safe sex square in the hands of men. This should go well.
That’s more of a personal dig considering I’ve literally forgotten my keys in my own front door (this week), but apparently not only has a new study shown promise that male birth control pills work, but that they are safe. Known as dimethandrolone undecanoate, or DMAU, research was presented at Chicago’s annual Endocrine Society meeting that a month-long trial was recently completed with positive results.
In a nutshell (sorry, couldn’t resist), the pill lowers sperm hormones while not altering testosterone levels. This was a key aspect of the study, as previous attempts have either caused liver damage or left the body too quickly to work as a single-pill treatment.
To elaborate even further, here’s what the study’s author Dr. Stephanie Page, who is also the professor of medicine at the University of Washington, had to say:
Many men say they would prefer a daily pill as a reversible contraceptive, rather than long-acting injections or topical gels, which are also in development.
It sounds like even if this trial doesn’t work out (the study was developed and funded by the National Institutes of Health, but not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal), there are several other options in the works.
Of course, this is all well and good, but could cause a potential rise in STIs if men were to get the silly notion in their heads that a pill will fully replace a condom. Then again, perhaps there will be an affordable treatment for those soon now that pharmaceutical price hikers like Martin Shkreli are headed to the big house.
