Imagine throwing away your birth control pills and asking your significant other to take on the burden of contraception.
Scientists are getting closer to making that a reality with their work on testosterone injections to temporarily block sperm production. (Six months after the injections, men's sperm counts return to normal.) Trials in China so far show promise: one man in a 100 fathered a child while on the injections.
The injections may be available in about five years, but for now, men's contraceptive options are condom use, vasectomy, and . . . withdrawal (obviously, the least safe method). Interestingly, only a third of men polled by the Family Planning Association said they were interested in hormonal contraception. And, even though there are no serious side effects to the injections, almost a third of the 1,045 men in the Chinese trials stopped participating, and none gave reasons why.
If hormone injections as male contraception became available and you knew they were as effective as the pill, would you want your significant other to try it? Would you foresee any problems in negotiating responsibility for birth control between you both?
Herve Leger
Make Up For Ever
Rimmel
Hell yes, I'd want him to try it! Especially if it doesn't have all the emotional side-effects my birth control gives me!
1WHY DIDN'T THEY THINK OF THIS 50 YEARS AGO????
2haha yea for real mondaymoos! And imagine dropping the extra 10 lbs the pill makes you hold.. that would be nice..
3this sounds AMAZING!!
honestly, though, i'd be a little bit nervous about giving up control of birth control. i'm the one that's going to have to deal with a majority of the consequences if i DO get pregnant, so i'd want to be the one making sure that we don't get pregnant in the first place.
4My hubby cannot remember to make a regular doctors appointment I cannot imagine him remembering this. I will stick to taking my own precautions since I have the most to lose if I forget!
5"And, even though there are no serious side effects to the injections, almost a third of the 1,045 men in the Chinese trials stopped participating, and none gave reasons why."
Sounds fishy to me.
6maybe its an ancient chinese secret to why they stopped.
7No ancient chinese secret: Men feel emasculated. Stupid, but true.
8I agree mondaymoos — they were just all — "Peace. Out. You ladies take your pills..."
9Good point about the emasculation. If this ever gets developed and approved, I wonder what the marketing will be like. Will they make it seem like some macho thing to be on the male pill?
10I would totally love for my boyfriend to try it, and he'd probably be pretty willing to do so (he's as nervous about pregnancy as I am). I'd still continue to take my own BC pills as well, though. I went on them initially in order to help control my bleeding disorder and how it effected my period (oh HEY, 19-day-period ..), so I definitely wouldn't stop taking them. Also, having two methods is always a nice precaution ..
115 years from now?
12Dude, why is it not here earlier?!
I'm making my hubby take this since he's the paranoid guy--he's torn between wanting a second one and trying to not knock me up again (the first one was an 'accident'--happy one-- since I was/still am on birth control pill).
I predict an increase in male pregnancy as a result of men forgetting to take their pill.
13It's an injection, wackdoodle! But yeah, if it were a pill? Forgeddabout it!
14My husband is way too forgetful for this to be useful. But in general this is definitely a good thing!
15I agree with whoever said they'd rather be in control because they're the one who has to deal with the pregnancy. Although it would be nice to be "carefree" in at least this area of my life!
16I wouldn't want him to have an injection. I want to know that his bits will all work when we need them to. I'm at an age now where I want to have a baby.
Maybe 10 yrs ago this is something I would have considered. I never minded using condoms though. It could lead to an increase in promiscuity and less use of condoms if men think they have all their bases covered with this injection.
SIGH.
17Pregnancys all over the world would go up 110% if it was left up to these men.
18My bf and I were just talking about this the other day and he said he would never take male BC because he is scared of what it would do to his body and what not. I said to him that he basically wanted me to continue with methods of prevention that are proven detrimental to my health because I already have joint problems, migraines and am a smoker and that I could possibly have serious repercussions later on down the line because my choices are very limited due these things but that all of them would continue to make me worse if I kept with them.
He had nothing to say but that he was scared and didn't feel comfortable. The chances that even a third of the male population would sign up and get more than two shots is soo severely slim that Eve would die laughing.
19I love it! I think it's a great idea, especially if there are no side effects for men. Women's bc is often riddled with side effects.
20I'm all for options - but I'd only feel comfortable with my fate in my own control. Especially for something like this, that would change it forever.
Bri
21Um... the whole "guys would forget" excuse is ridiculous. You think they'd forget if you told them that you were sure as hell going to make them support THEIR child if you got pregnant? That's a pretty strong incentive to remember. I think this is a great idea. One of my bc's made my hair fall out (I switched) but I have read about so many women with such terrible side effects, some irreversible, that it disgusts me that we have to go through this just so a guy can hop on without getting us knocked up. Guys share half the responsibility of baby making. They should share the responsibility of contraception too.
22dm8, they didn't develop this 50 years ago because all doctors were male.
23If men know they can control their own fertility, think of the freedom it will give them in the infidelity department.
24I'd be afraid of the possibility of permanently affecting sperm production... birth control doesn't reduce the amount of eggs I have. I'd also like to know what the not-so-serious side effects were found to be: male b*tchiness?
It'd be nice to have the choice, but my pills aren't causing me any trouble. If anything, they've made my cycle easier to deal with.
25I like the idea, but I want to know for sure that it works. I wouldnt use it by its self though, just cause my partner is forgetful.
26I would keep my birth control anyway. I like the shorter periods and clear skin too much to give it up.
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