The Birth Control Pill revolutionized women’s reproductive health when it was approved in 1960, but it has its downsides: weight gain, mood swings, and tender breasts, to name a few. Some critics have raised an important point: Why should females bear the burden of birth control when males are complicit in the kind of intercourse that risks pregnancy, too?

Promising research on Male birth control reveals a new compound that could help even out this inequality — and not scare men off in the process. Currently Men use about 20% Share of Birth Control with Condoms

A World Wide Study revealed that Large Number of Men are Receptive to the idea Of birth control if they would not experience side erects n a presentation at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans in Late March this year Dr C Wong of the Los Angeles BioMed Research Institute announced that her team’s trial of a male birth control compound called 11-betaMNTDC not only decreased a hormone linked to sperm production in a 28-day trial of 40 men but also preserved their libido.

But the majority of the men in this study didn’t report any effect on sex drive. What makes 11-betaMNTDC unique in this regard is its double function, which could allow it to decrease sperm production while sidestepping a moodkilling drop in libido.

Two hormones lead to the production of sperm, explained Wang in her presentation: luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone. To prevent sperm production — and unwanted pregnancy — you want to suppress the function of these two hormones. The problem is that these two hormones also lead to the production of testosterone, which is important in maintaining male sex drive.

The new drug, 11-beta-MNTDC (full name: 11-beta-methyl-19- nortestosterone dodecylcarbonate), does suppress those two hormones, but it also plays the role of a testosterone mimic. In that way, it is like “a pill with two hormone actions in one,” said Wang.

The study was a small one, involving 10 controls who received a placebo drug and 30 men who received either a 200-milligram or 400-milligram dose of 11-betaMNTDC. After taking the drug or placebo once a day for 28 days, the researchers collected the results: All of the men who took the drug had reduced testosterone levels. Only five men reported mildly decreased sex drive and two reported mild erectile dysfunction, but nobody reported decreased sexual activity. There are still a few kinks to work out, like the fact that this pill would take four to eight weeks to kick in and that it must be taken with food. But when it does happen — Wang predicts hormonal male contraception will be available in 10 years — it will provide a much-needed option in a very limited field.

“The overall goal of our work in developing male hormonal contraceptives is to create a menu of contraceptive choices for men (pill, injection, implant, gel), similar to the choices of method that women have,” says Page. By providing an alternative to condoms, vasectomy, and withdrawal, she and her co-investigators hope to get more men to use birth control — and prevent more unplanned pregnancies in the process.

It would be about 10 yers from now that we see Make birth control pill in market.

Dr. Pargat Singh Bhurji
MD,FRCP ( C ) Consultant Pediatrician Surrery BC