Up and Coming

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By Christopher Belknap

Condoms currently rank as the most popular form of male birth control, with 79% of men reporting in a global survey that they have used a condom in the past. Given that the only other choices for male birth control are surgical procedures like vasectomy, it shouldn’t surprise us that condoms remain the male contraceptive of choice. Still, condoms are far from perfect. According to the American Pregnancy Association, when couples use condoms as their only form of birth control, failure rates can climb as high as 15%. Such high failure rates beg the question: why haven’t we developed a better method of male birth control?

The biological answer to this question is easy. The average man produces about one hundred million sperm each day. For a male contraceptive to effectively prevent pregnancy, it must deactivate over 95% of these sperm. Compared to female contraceptives, which only have to neutralize a single egg, the male contraceptive has a more difficult job.

Aside from the biological explanation, the lack of energy put into researching male birth control alternatives may also indicate the prevalence of the notion that men are less willing than women to manipulate their bodies in the way birth control requires. Recent studies, however, challenge that assumption. Out of 9000 men surveyed across Spain, Germany, Sweden, France, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, 55% said they would be willing to try a hormonal form of male birth control.

Among the various methods of male fertility control currently under examination, hormone control has received the most attention and is furthest along in development. When the male body produces sperm normally, the brain sends luteinizing hormone FSH. Artificially administering testosterone or a similar chemical, either through injection or through a small, rod-like implant inserted into the arm, enables the male body to constantly repress the release of FSH and LH from the brain, cutting off sperm production.

But the question remains: will enough men be willing to use a hormone contraceptive? The study mentioned before recorded that 55% of a large, random, cross-cultural sample of men would be “willing” or “very willing” to employ some form of hormonally based male fertility control (MFC). Levels of willingness among males to try the new product ranged from 29% in Indonesia to 71% in Spain. Other factors besides geography that correlated to higher or lower levels of willingness included educational levels, income, and religious affiliation. Higher education correlated with a higher acceptance of MFC. As for religion, whereas only 29% of Muslim men and 40% of Buddhist men said they would be willing to try the MFC, 55-60% of Christian or Jewish participants expressed interest. When explicitly asked to compare using an MFC to using a condom, men from most countries still preferred the condom over the hypothetical MFC, with the exception of some Western European countries like France, Germany, and Sweden. What these numbers suggest is that although most men would be willing to try an MFC, it is unclear how many would be willing to start using it exclusively as an alternative to condoms. Condoms, of course, carry the additional advantage of defending against STDs, something that chemical therapies will never do.

As research into possible hormonal and non-hormonal forms of male birth control continues, it remains to be seen whether MFCs can successfully transition from the theory and testing stages to an actually marketable product. Some experts think that the soonest a new male birth control option will be available to the public is five years from now. As recent scandals have demonstrated, however, the complex process of drug development, testing, and approval is never easy to predict.