Practitioners' First Choice
Practitioners' First Choice

The new male contraception that immobilises sperm…promise or panic?

Dr. Uche:

Short term promise, long term panic.

So the new sAC trials look promising and after several attempts over the decades we could be nearing a viable contraceptive pill for men. Furthermore, it’s non-hormonal. Now, in the short term this seems like a win. Potentially less hormonal contraceptive burden on women, another empowering option for men and their reproductive outcomes…where’s the downside? (assuming women trust men to take their own ‘pill’). 

So why the long term panic? I feel as though we are just stepping further into the vortex of population mismanagement and FUD around family vs self-centred life. If there’s anything I’ve observed from my last 3.5 decades, it’s that the West may have gone too far in wanting to control reproduction and that has had some less than desirable effects. I think for long term health we need to wean our population off its dependence on birth control while simultaneously creating structures that allow for family and community once again – instead it looks like men are about to sip from the “no baby movement” chalice.

Hilary:

Both!

Promise. So from a women’s perspective it is a bit of a relief to have some options when it comes to sharing the physical burden of preventing pregnancy. I have a bit more hmmm radical ideas when it comes to how much society should be trying to “prevent pregnancy” but that’s a story for a different time. Women for decades have taken on the burden (and responsibility) of decisions over reproductive health. This means decades worth of no-questions asked hormonal birth control or long-term contraception use through medical devices. To have men share the physical and emotional burden of this should lead to better outcomes (we hope).

Panic. Trust issues… women have had ALL the power when it comes to making reproductive decisions. Women may be very very reluctant to relinquish this to men. Men will gain a whole host of control when it comes to dictating their own reproductive choice but women if they chose to come off birth control will need to be ok with passing over the baton. I don’t necessarily see this happening as much I just think male birth control will be used as a fail-safe method if women’s birth control were to ever go awry.

Check out related report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64635446

*Disclaimer: All opinions expressed on this platform are those of the individuals and not representative of any particular institution. This is not to be taken as medical advice.

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