Reliable, affordable male birth control pills have been a long time coming. There are currently several male birth control pills in the works, and here is what you can expect.
Decreasing sperm count
To prevent pregnancy, the male birth control pills work by decreasing the sperm count in semen. In fact, you’ll have so few semen that you’ll be considered temporarily infertile and endocrinologists are using low sperm count numbers associated with infertility as a baseline to create these pills.
Some male birth control pills work in conjunction with a topical gel. There’s also a non-hormonal polymer called Vasalgel, which gets injected into the vas deferens to block the sperm.
Because the male birth control pill decreases testosterone, these pills include replacement testosterone.
Current trials
Most of these male birth control pills are still in phase 1 or phase 2 trials with small groups of men. Phase 3 of drug trials are when they’re tested against a placebo, but these trials haven’t gotten that far yet.
Although the trials have determined that these pills carry with them side effects—from acne and fatigue to lowered libido—most have been tolerable.
Because these trials still need to recruit for phase 3, complete those phase 3 trials and then, assuming all goes well, get the products manufactured, you’re looking at probably a decade before anything hits the market.
Thinking you might want to sign up to be in a trial? Consider that, in addition to possible side effects, there are some rules to be a participant.
For example, you and your partner would need to agree to have sex without using any other form of birth control. After all, the researchers need to know efficacy rate for typical use. Of course, the scientists wouldn’t shove you out into the world of unprotected sex until they knew your sperm levels were sufficiently low, but no form of birth control is 100% effective—especially those still in the trial phases.
