Male Injectible Contraceptive on the Horizon?

In college, my best friend was the president of the local chapter’s National Organization for Women. She would organize pro-choice rallies and demonstrate for women’s rights. I remember sitting down with her and having a conversation about kids; at the time, in our early 20s, we both swore up and down that we would never get married (nobody can tell us what to do!) or have kids. Fast forward ten years and she has already been married once and I am happily married with two children…things changed rapidly once our teenage angst dissipated. But I remember during that conversation she talked about getting her tubes tied to ensure there would be no pregnancy and we complained about being on birth control and said things like “Why is it always up to the woman to get her hormones all jacked up in order to avoid getting pregnant?! How the tides may be turning….

According to a recent report on a study done in China, men might be able to hold the hormone torch from here on out. Researchers there have discovered a male contraception method that has been determined to be effective; in addition, there have been no serious side-effects and it is also reversible. Dr. Yi-Qun Gu, MD, from the Chinese National Research Institute for Family Planning states, “”For couples who can not, or prefer not to use only female-oriented contraception, options have been limited to vasectomy, condom and withdrawal. Our study shows a male hormonal contraceptive regimen may be a potential, novel and workable alternative.”

Dr. Gu noted that this study was the largest one of its kind to test male hormonal contraceptives. In the trial that took place across several centers, researchers tested androgen preparation. The study had over 1,000 participants. These participants had to be fertile healthy men between the ages of 20 to 45 years. In addition, each of these male participants was the father of at least one child who had been born within the two years leading up to the study. The female partners of these participants ranged in age between 18 and 38 years and were also equally fertile. In the study that spanned thirty months, the male participants had a monthly injection of 500 mg of testosterone undecanoate with tea seed oil.

Researchers in the study discovered that with the testosterone injection, there was a cumulative pregnancy rate (in other words, the contraceptive failed) of 1.1 of every 100 men within the first two years, also known as the efficacy phase. Of the over 1,000 participants, none reported any serious side effects. Also, the reproductive function of the men went back to their normal range in almost every case except for two participants. Dr. Gu adds, “Despite the present encouraging results, the long-term safety of this hormonal male contraceptive regimen requires more extensive testing with a focus on cardiovascular, prostate and behavioral safety.”