Male Contraception
A Chance For Responsibility

Introduction | Methods | Social Issues

Introduction

The goal of this page is to provide information about the methods of long term contraception for males that are currently being researched. These are methods that remain outside of the public realm of knowledge, thus we continue to place the major burdens of contraception and birth control upon the female. It is long over do that males take responsibility for themselves, but without the availability to these contaceptive methods it remains difficult.

"We speak of a 'contraceptive supermarket' for women - the concept that since no one method is right for everybody, a variety of methods should be available. We argue that the pill's unsuitability for older women doesn't mean it should be kept from younger women; that the diaphragm is right for some women despite its messiness and restriction of spontaneity; that the sponge's relatively low effectiveness rate doesn't mean it should be taken off the shelf.

But when we think about contraceptive availability this way and what contraceptive supermarket is available to men, the answer is that only three purely male methods exist - withdrawal, the condom, and vasectomy (male sterilization). This contrasts with the list for women- the diaphragm, the sponge, IUDs, the pill, cervical caps, 'morning after' pills, Norplant, Depo Provera, natural methods, ovulation detectors, the female condom, foams, jellies, suppositories, sterilization, and more. And when we consider that of the three male methods withdrawal has low effectiveness, the condom faces psychological resistance and a 3-15% failure rate, and vasectomy is not reliably reversible, the selection for men seems paltry indeed.

But there ARE more methods for men. They are just not widely known or widely available. But some can be done easily at home and some just need a little more effort to find. Each has a clear advantage over current contraceptives (male and female) in one or more areas of safety, effectiveness, convenience, reversibility, and avoidance of surgery."

-Elaine Lissner
Male Contraception Information Project (MCIP) Director


Quote from:
FRONTIERS IN NONHORMONAL MALE CONTRACEPTION: A CALL FOR RESEARCH
A study and paper by Elaine Lissner

Methods of Male Contraception

Most people have heard about the idea of a "male pill." This would be a hormonal contraceptive that would stop the production of sperm, but currently no such drug has been approved. There are two major categories of non-hormonal male contraception, vas-based methods and heat methods. Both categories have several different options of the actual procedures that are used. Vas-based methods involves cutting or blocking in the vas deferens which hinders sperm from being released. Heat methods utilize the fact that sperm becomes unfertile at a certain temperature by increasing the temperature of the scrotum.

Vas-based Methods Include:

Cutting & Blockage-
  • Traditional Vasectomy
  • No-scapel Vasectomy
  • Percutaneous Injection

    Fertility Limitation-
  • Permanent Chemical Injection
  • Injectable Plugs
  • The Shug (silicone plug)
  • S. M. A. (polymer stryrene maleic anhydride)

    Heat Methods Include:
  • Simple Wet Heat
  • Artificial Cryptorchidism
  • Polyester Suspensories
  • Ultrasound

    A complete list of sources is available from     Elaine Lissner's paper

    Social Issues

    Currently, most people, including funding sources, believe that the only long-term male contraceptive being researched is the "male-pill." Because of the complexity of this method, it will take years before an effective pill will actually be discovered and approved. Many of the chemicals being tested now for oral preparations are found to be toxic. Ironically though, a major drawback for support of this research has been the negative side effects hormonal contraceptives cause, which happen to be very similar to the side effects in the female hormonal contraceptives that are currently available to the public. Why are women allowed to be subjected to such side effects from FDA approved methods, while the mere thought of men incurring similar side effects halts research all together?

    Males recognize the need to take responsibility for contraception but are left with few options to choose from. Currently many males around the world choose traditional vasectomy as a form of contraception once the decision is made not to have more children. Around 17% of all males in the United States have turned to vasectomy for contraceptive purposes. The benefits of these non-hormonal methods are the simplicity of procedure, no side effects, in most cases- high reversability, and an extremely high effectiveness rate. When a female decides to take "the pill" as her form of birth control, she is acceptingly subjecting herself to many side effects do to the hormonal changes caused by the drug. Though improvement in female contraceptives have limited the dangerous side effects that once caused infertility, there still remain irreversable discomforts for many who use these hormonal contraceptives. If these "new methods" of male contraception, methods that have been researched over the last seventy years, were made available, it would provide the contraceptive market with some of the safest and most effective methods available to date and it would allow males the option to also take precautions not just females.

    Introduction | Methods | Social Issues