Male Birth Control Lie #1 – Vasectomy Is The Only Method
Until recently, many people thought that the only effective (solely) male birth control method was total sterilization. This is otherwise known as a vasectomy, where (in very basic terms) doctors sever the path for the sperm to reach the penis.
Male Birth Control Lie #2 – Men Don’t Want To Take Birth Control
One of the reasons bandied about as to why there are no real methods for male birth control is that men don’t want to have to deal with it (sidenote: welcome to our world, boys!). However, one study showed that up to 83% of men would welcome a male birth control pill.
Male Birth Control Lie #3 – Not Much Research Has Been Done On Effective Methods
There have actually been a plethora of studies on the varying types of male birth control methods that could potentially reach the market. However, many of them tend to fall by the wayside due to a lack of funding or a lack of support.
Male Birth Control Lie #4 – Birth Control For Men Isn’t Important To Women
If anything, I would think this would be a huge feminist issue! The ability to choose when and how you wish to procreate is a fundamental human right, and currently, much of that decision falls on women. With advancements in research, this could level the playing field and allow both parties to control the decision.
Male Birth Control Lie #5 – You Can’t Have A Pill Because Men Need Testosterone
This is only partially true; men do require testosterone for a wide variety of physical functioning, outside of sexual needs. And, unlike a female hormonal pill, you cannot just block certain hormones and achieve the same level of success.
However, two scientists, who were actually looking at ways to cure cancer, stumbled upon a revolutionary method to control male fertility, without affecting male hormones.
In VERY simplistic terms (as they got very science-y in the article), here is the breakdown of what the doctors discovered:
- Dr. Gary Flynn works to create medicines that work at a molecular level in the human body.
- Using 3-D modeling techniques, Dr. Flynn then “docks” these medicines to proteins.
- After that, he creates “scaffolding” for the proteins to connect so that the medication he created binds to whichever type of protein he specifies and causes the desired effect.
- Originally, this desired effect was to target cancer cells.
- However, Dr. Flynn and his friend Dr. Brandt came across another researcher named Dr. Chen when they were researching which proteins can be easily targeted.
- This is where it gets revolutionary, but a little complicated, so bear with me.
- Dr. Brandt and Dr. Flynn found that their medicinal scaffolding specifically targeted a class of proteins called kinases.
- Dr. Chen was working on research on mechanisms inside developing sperm cells that this kinase can control.
- This kinase is found at a rate of 10,000 to 1 in the testes versus any other part of the body.
- Theoretically then, the doctors could use the medicine to create scaffolds around this kinase and stop them from creating full grown sperm, without having any other hormonal or problematic side effects.
So What’s The Point?
Any liberal and feminist would agree that birth control (i.e. the ability to plan your family at your choosing) is a human right. Both women and men deserve to be able to plan their families. The only problem that really stands in these doctors’ path is funding. They are struggling to find specific funding to move the research forward to clinical trials. If they were able to secure it, they said they could likely have it in clinical trials in three years. That may mean male birth control could be on the market by 2020.
There are so many things in this world that we cannot change or cannot fix. So why don’t we unite behind something we can? Male birth control for all!
If you would like to find out more, or support the male birth control initiatives, you can go here or here for further information.
Featured image a combination images by Flickr user Jenny Koske and Todd Sanders. These images are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
