: There are numerous birth control options available today, everything from the oral birth control pill and intrauterine device (IUD) for Minnesota women, but men in Minneapolis & St Paul have very limited options for male contraception on the market. The main ones are abstinence, rhythm method, withdrawal, condoms, and vasectomy. Given this lineup, there is certainly room for more reliable contraceptives for men. Yet some men in Minnesota complain that none of those options allow them to fully enjoy sex, as condoms may reduce penile sensation, for instance, and vasectomies require a surgery.
A male birth control pill certainly sounds like an attractive idea. But after the millions of dollars of research in the past several decades, there’s still no pill. Pharmaceutical companies and medical researchers have investigated long-term, reversible forms of birth control designed for men, and all have fallen short.
We believe that a male birth control pill can be developed in the future, but it is definitely not easy. Here are possible reasons.
• Side effects. Researchers discovered that the high dose of testosterone approach comes with a host of physical side effects, including acne, weight gain, prostate-gland growth and abnormal liver function.
• The effects of hormone-based male pills varie with a man’s ethnicity. Works for some, but not all.
• International pharmaceutical corporations all dropped their male birth control development programs, without financial assistance from a pharmaceutical company.
• Even a magic pill is developed; two big questions still surround its possible use: will men take it? Will women trust them to take it?
Despite all of this, there is still a healthy interest in a male birth control pill or non-hormonal options. One thing seems to be clear: given the safety and effectiveness of vasectomy, and fact that there is no daily compliance issue with vasectomy, any new option for male contraception has to be this good or better. In the next blog, we will talk about a reversible vas-blocking procedure in the future.
