Millions of men and women battle unplanned pregnancies every single day, doing their best to avoid the “child milestone” years before they are ready to cross it.
From pills to IUDs, there are a number of options that couples can utilize. However, most forms of contraception leave the responsibility to the woman.
In the area of contraceptives, a majority of products and medications have been developed for women, making it their responsibility.
“For so long the responsibility has fallen on women shows that it’s a women’s issue. It’s part of women’s rights that we shouldn’t have to do it all. This should be a shared responsibility,” Anne Coleman, associate professor of life and physical sciences at Cabrini University, said
When it comes to male contraception, strictly used by men, there is little to be found. Currently, the most profound resources, really the only resources, include condoms, pulling out, and sterilization (vasectomy). But, those three methods are at the ends of either extreme. Two are extremely temporary, and one is extremely permanent and irreversible.
What’s being done?
Advancements have been made towards the development of a reversible contraception for men in the form of an injection. Finally, in the wake of ever-evolving technology and medicine, there may be a form of contraception accessible to men that is widely similar to that of a woman’s contraception.
Senior biology major, Allie Vallen, said, “I think the advances in male birth control are interesting. Since the establishment of female contraceptives has been around since the early 1960s and medical professionals are just now trying to advance birth control to share the burden and responsibility of birth control between the sexes.”
A recent study, released by The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), explored the possible effectiveness and side-effects of a hormonal-injectable contraception for men.
The goal of this study was to decrease or halt the production of a man’s sperm, while undergoing the injections. All in effort to develop a contraception for men in order to prevent unplanned pregnancies.
How does it work?
This study evaluated 320 18-45-year-old male participants and their monogamous relationship with 18-38-year-old female partners. Those studied were found across 10 study centers throughout the world.
The study was conducted in four-separate phases, a screening phase (up to eight weeks), a suppression phase (up to 26 weeks), an efficacy phase (up to 56 weeks) and a recovery phase (up to 52 weeks).
Screening included ensuring that the males and their female partners did not have any known fertility issues. Both were also tested for normal reproductive states. The partners agreed to, not only maintaining their monogamous relationship, but to the regularity of sexual intercourse at least two times a week.
Injections began in the suppression stage, where the men were injected every eight weeks for 26 weeks. Throughout the suppression phase, an additional-non-hormonal contraception was to be used in concurrence with the injections.
The study’s efficacy phase truly tested the injection’s ability to avoid pregnancy. Throughout this stage, the only contraception that was to be used were the injections.
After the completion of the suppression phase, the recovery phase was entered. This stage stopped the injections and monitored the level of sperm found in the semen of the male participants, until it returned to their normal levels. Substitutional contraception was encouraged. The suppression stage measured, or ensured, the reversibility of the injections.
Essentially, the male participants were administered injections every eight weeks. Sperm count in ejaculate is lowered, or nearly eliminated, through the “co-administered” injections of progestogen and testosterone.
Side-Effects
“It’s interesting to watch the development of this science and this debate because the discovery of side-effects has caused a lot of consternation among people, particularly among males who say we don’t want a form of birth control that would cause really bad side effects,” Paul Wright, associate professor of English at Cabrini University, said.
Due to side-effects, 20 men dropped out of the study, which caused an external panel to stop the study. However, this did not prevent the further study of sperm recovery and other analysis of the portion completion. The men were then steered into the recovery phase.
Those men were cited as saying the effects were too much for them to continue. Of the 20 men, six reported changes in their mood, another six cited one-effect of the drug (acne, pain or panic at first injection, palpitations, hypertension, change in libido, and erectile dysfunction), and eight men said they experienced more than one side-effect.
Cabrini University sophomore Chris Brady said, “I think there’s going to be side-effects either way and you can’t expect to put something foreign in your body and expect it not to affect you at all. So, people will have to deal with side-effects either way, but the side-effects that the 20 people experienced in the study may have been – I’m not sure if they were too severe, but I just think it’s too soon to push this injection to the market. They have a lot more work to do.”
What was found?
Overall, the experiment was found to be successful.
Out of every 100 users, only 1.57 experienced a pregnancy.
The success rate was 96 percent among the users.
Within this study, the goal of the contraceptive is very comparable to that of female oral contraceptives, when it is considering the prevention of pregnancy and the temporary prevention of sperm production.
Of the male participants,87.9 percent said they would use this method of contraception if it were available, and 87.5 percent of the female partners also communicated the same feedback.
“I only started hearing about the topic of male birth control recently. From it practically being unheard of a couple years, heck months ago, to where they are now, I think the advancements and the topic of this will grow by the day,” freshman secondary education and English major Alex Del Giudice said. “The side effects pale in comparison to the probability of a pregnancy, so I don’t have a problem with the side effects.”
What does this mean?
Even considering the early end to the study, 75 percent of participants were happy with the study and its findings. They would use this product, if it were available.
Considering this large percentage, there is reason to continue the advancement and development of only this male-injectable contraception.
“I think at first there is going to be a lot of hesitation, but I think in general that men will take advantage of it. They would much rather take a pill then always having to carry around a condom,” Coleman said. “Anything we can do to further the advancement of intentional family planning I think makes society better.”
