Birth control, or contraception, is the use of medicine, devices, or surgical procedures to prevent pregnancy. Most contraceptive methods, such as pills, IUDs, surgical sterilizations, patches, and injections, are primarily for women. Yet, there are actually two effective and common contraception options available for men: vasectomy, the surgical procedure where the vas deferens are cut to prevent sperm from reaching the semen, and condoms.
Unfortunately, the disparity and injustice between women’s and men’s contraception result in a burden on women’s reproductive autonomy. Without the development of more contraceptive methods for males, there is unbalanced decision-making between men and women to take birth control so women are left to make the decision to take birth control much more often than men. This means women must assume also most of the financial, health-related, and other hardships associated with this decision.
In the 2015-2017 National Survey of Family Growth, about 65.3% of women between ages 15-49 in the United States used contraception, with a higher percentage at 74.8% in women ages 40-49. While contraception effectively prevents women from getting pregnant, there are multiple reports of women experiencing severe side effects from oral contraceptive pills (OCPs).
OCPs are the most common contraception used and cause hormonal changes. Progesterone-only pills, for example, have caused bleeding, nausea, headaches, breast tenderness, mood changes, and decreased libido. In addition, there has been consistent evidence that OCPs can increase the risk of breast and cervical cancers. As a result, many women have discontinued OCP after one year of use to avoid unwanted side effects.
Oral contraceptive pills are usually only used by women.
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Although there have been a few recent attempts to develop male birth control pills, most are only designed to control levels of testosterone, the male sex hormone, which can cause unwanted side effects such as acne, weight gain, and mood swings. A recent experiment presented by the American Chemical Society, however, lead to the development of a non-hormonal male contraceptive that prevents spermatogenesis, the development of mature sperm, without altering male hormonal levels. Researchers accomplished this by targetting a protein called the “retinoic acid receptor alpha” (RAR-α) that plays a role in spermatogenesis. By disabling the RAR-α gene using a compound named YCT529, they were able to cause reversible sterility in male mice. The researchers found YCT529 to be 99% effective in reducing sperm counts to prevent pregnancy without any observable side effects. Researchers proposed beginning human clinical trials in late 2022.
This milestone in the development of male birth control may be a stepping stone in easing the burden on women’s reproductive autonomy by providing safer alternatives to prevent pregnancies and shifting the dynamic of contraception to be a shared responsibility.
Featured Image: itakdalee
