439
Male Birth Control Pill to Stop Sperm Production Passes Safety Test
(www.scientificamerican.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
439 points (99.8% liked)
science
20651 readers
817 users here now
A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.
rule #1: be kind
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
June 29, 2010
Introducing the First Male Birth Control Pill
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/news/a8721/male-birth-control-pill-contraception/
That's the earliest year I remember hearing about a male birth control pill. There are probably articles from years prior to 2010. Obviously this is a great advancement, but is it reasonable to expect one of these to actually come to market within the next decade?
Edit: Actually, this is discussed in an article linked to by the Scientific American article:
Female birth control has to be safer and have fewer side effects than pregnancy.
Male birth control has to be safer and have fewer side effects than letting women carry the burden of birth control.
There will not be a male birth control pill. We would be better off putting these resources toward improving the safety of female birth control.
more options are always good for edge cases.
some women can't take birth control pills, and the other birth control options have downsides as well.
nothing is 100% effective, so if you want to be even more sure that you won't make babies, both pertners being sterlized is extra security.
some men would like to be sterile but are hesitant to have a vasectomy done. They are generally simple but they don't always go well.
for younger single men in casual encounters, you can never be sure of the other's birth control status. I'm sure there are men who would like the option to be in control of their sperm.
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be male hormonal birth control, it’s just that after 40 years of the same story over and over, it seems the effort should be redirected. Vasalgel has been “in development” since the 70s. It’s not getting any closer.
Meanwhile, the US still only has one size of non hormonal IUD available, and two sizes of hormonal. They don’t fit most nulliparous women comfortably. This is a very fixable problem. 50 years of R&D could have solved this.