For years, folks have advocated for a male contraceptive and scientists have been working diligently to come up with a solution that would prevent men from impregnating women. We previously reported that male birth control injections were being tested, but scientists at the University of Minnesota have developed male birth control pills instead.
According to reports, Dr. Abdullah al Noman and his team at the university have been testing the pills on mice in clinical trials, reportedly finding the pills to be 99% effective at preventing pregnancy in the rodents. Despite those findings, the scientists have not yet found the pills to be safe on male humans.
“Safety is very important for birth control pills because people are not taking it for a disease, so they are less tolerant of the side effects,” Dr. Noman stated.
He and his colleagues reportedly gave mice a daily dose of a molecule called YCT529 over a four week period and found that their sperm count decreased significantly. The mice could reproduce normally again between four and six weeks of receiving the treatment.
“When we went to even 100 times higher does than the effective dose, the compound didn’t show any toxicity,” Noman continued.
Richard Anderson of the University of Edinburgh said Dr. Noman finding no side effects in mice is not indicative that the drug will be safe to use on humans.
“If you were developing a drug that’s targeting a completely novel pathway, I think it would be appropriate to be cautious about safety when there isn’t a track record in that field.”
Would you want your man to get on this male contraceptive ladies? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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