Male birth control

Male birth control!  

 Yes, you heard me right - researchers may have finally discovered a short term birth control for men.  

 So how does it work?  

 Well, essentially, it operates as an on-off switch for sperm where it stops them from swimming. I’m sure some of us have seen videos in high school health class where a crowd of sperm race each other in the swim competition of their lives, through the female reproductive tract in a desperate attempt to fertilise the awaiting egg. But this male birth control stops the sperm from swimming altogether, pretty much canceling that race before it even begins.  

 And there’s more - for one, it’s highly effective (always what you want in birth control), fast-acting (which is great for those of us who aren’t the patient type), it’s temporary, and it’s hormone free (which is more than we can say for some of the female birth control options out there, like the pill).  

So what exactly is this male birth control, and how did it come to exist?  

 Lonny Levin and Jochen Buck, both professors of pharmacology, didn’t actually set out to find a male contraceptive. They were studying a particular enzyme, called soluble adenylyl cyclase (I’ll refer to it as sAC), and they found that when they genetically engineered mice to not have sAC, the males were infertile. And after this they realised that this enzyme seemed to play a pretty big role in helping sperm to swim.  

 So they made an experimental compound, which was meant to temporarily suppress sAC. They injected this compound into a whole bunch of mice (52 to be precise) and paired them off with females. And they found that none of the female mice got pregnant. But, when mice that weren’t given this compound and were paired off with females, they impregnated almost a third of their mates.  

The effect of this compound on the enzyme lasted up to two and a half hours, and then at three hours, the sperm started to move again. And then at 24 hours, almost all of the sperm had recovered their normal levels of movement. Now the researchers also made this compound into an oral form because they figured that men probably wouldn’t want to be injecting themselves with drugs before having sex, which, fair enough. And the drug was still effective when it was given to mice this way too.  

There is just one caveat, and that is that it’s only been tested in mice so far. But the good news is that humans also have sAC and that in men, it also contributes to sperm movement. Now side note - this enzyme’s function is not just helping sperm swim, it also exists in other areas of the body to help with different cell functions.  

So what’s next? Well, the researchers are currently testing out this compound in rabbits, because their reproductive organs are more similar to humans. The idea is eventually to be able to make a small pill that someone can take, and then within an hour, be ready to engage in sexual activity, but there is a bit more research that needs to be done before this can happen.  

Now the reason that this is such a great option for male birth control is because it’s non hormonal. There have been attempts to make male contraceptives already, using hormones, but just like with the female pill, there are a lot of side effects such as mood swings, weight gain and decreased libido. And the bonus of this being temporary is that it wouldn’t need to be taken every day.  

If you want to find out more about this, check out the Wired article. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter if you’re interested in more blog posts like this one!