According to an article in ScienceDaily: Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center are honing in on the development of what may be the first non-steroidal, oral contraceptive for men. Tests of low doses of a compound that interferes with retinoic acid receptors (RARs), whose ligands are metabolites of dietary vitamin A, showed that it caused sterility in male mice. The researchers found that low doses of the drug stopped sperm production with no apparent side effects. And crucial for a contraceptive, normal fertility was restored soon after drug administration was terminated.
Birth control pills for men is a great idea. Birth control can get very expensive. All of the responsibility shouldn't be placed on the woman to buy and take these pills everyday. Also, if both males and females were taking an oral contraceptives the chance of pregnancy would be even less. If one person forgets to take their pill it will not matter if their partner is already protected by their oral contraceptive. I would really like to see a male oral contraceptive on the market.
I find this to be really interesting because for years theres been the argument of who truly has the power and capability to "be safe" and be responsible for the circumstances of having sex. The typical thing was always the guy would just go out and buy contraceptives, however, not oral ones. Oral contraceptives were always the girls way of being safe, if she decided to use them. It definitely is important to have more then one person being able to be this in control of the situation. Hopefully this research is able to be continued to give more possibilities to this scenario.
ReplyDeleteI believe if this develops and becomes a marketable product it will be yet another great way of preventing unwanted pregnancies. Also, both men and women will double the chance of not becoming pregant. My one concern is will this somehow make condom use become illiminated and increase the spread of STDs.
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