Imagine, for a moment, a world where men can just take a pill and suddenly they, and their sexual partners, don’t have to worry about pregnancy.
Whatever you imagine that world to be like, it could become a reality as soon as next year.
Indonesia is preparing to produce a pill, nearly thirty years in the making, that will allow men - temporarily and without any apparent side effects - to produce sperm that cannot get women pregnant.
The pill is derived from the Justicia gendarussa, which is pervasive in India but also Indonesia’s Papua province, where it has been long been used by male members of a small remote tribe to prevent pregnancy.
After learning about that practice, a research scientist at Surabaya’s Airlangga University, Professor Bambang Prajogo Eko Wardojo, brought the plant to his lab in 1985. He and his colleagues have spent years confirming its effect, isolating its active ingredient and synthesizing it chemically into capsule form.
Human trials of the gendarussa pill have been highly successful, with results showing it effective at a rate comparable to female birth control pills. Testing has also shown that male fertility rates return to normal just 3 days after the subjects stopped taking the pills.
The Indonesian government has invested a good sum of money into the pill’s research and testing, specifically through the country’s National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN). In 2013, Airlangga began working with the country’s state-run pharmaceutical company, Indofarma, to begin work on mass-producing the drug, as well as securing the necessary production and distribution licenses. Indofarma later announced that it would be ready to begin production and export of the drug in 2014.
Obviously some delays have prevented the pill from hitting the market just yet - but it’s coming very soon. During a talk at Sunan Giri University in Surabaya last Saturday, the new Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Dr. M. Nasir, spoke about how the government was committed to utilizing the research done by Indonesian universities by connecting them to appropriate companies.
Specifically, Nasir mentioned the male birth control pill from Airlangga University as one example of research that would be produced domestically and massively commercialized in the near future. Pharmaceutical companies in China and the United States have also shown strong interest in obtaining the rights to produce the drug in their countries.
It may take many years of additional testing before it could reach consumers in America. However, the gendarussa pill is likely to be classified as herbal medicine in Indonesia. That mean so although it would not require the same level of scrutiny as regular pharmaceuticals to go to market here (although it would still have to meet the safety standards of Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and Health Ministry). As much of the testing on the pill has already been completed, there is little preventing it from becoming available to Indonesians consumers sometime next year
I got that permanently taken care of a few years ago, but it's good to know that going forward we won't have to waste so many frozen peas.
More seriously, the problem may still be getting the men whose families would most benefit from these pills to take them. I can imagine many cultures which would have serious stigma about knocking out their swimmers. Still, it sounds better than female hormonal birth control, which can have serious side effects for a small but non-negligible proportion of the population.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
There's also RISUG (or Vasalgel in the US) that's more akin to a reversible vasectomy. I count the days with giddy anticipation to whichever of these hits the market first, but I do worry that a lot fewer people will use condoms and the result will be major increases in STD rates. I suppose it's a Kantian dilemma: I would love to have sex with full sensation and not worry about pregnancy or have my partner mess with hormones, but I still want everyone else to use condoms so I don't catch anything.
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark." - Muhammad Ali
"Dating is not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be a heart-pounding, stomach-wrenching, gut-churning exercise in pitting your fear of rejection and public humiliation against your desire to find a mate. Enjoy." - Darth Wong
During my drinking days I would have basically never used a condom if this has been available. I think I'm affected by condoms more than most guys, but the loss of sensation and having to interrupt things by getting the package open and applying the rubber properly is a serious boner-shrinker for me, and of course being 8+ drinks deep during most of those hookups didn't help. If I'd had access to an effective male birth control pill I definitely would have taken it and risked the STD's, and statistically I probably would have contracted at least one. I can't imagine that my experience is all that unusual.
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark." - Muhammad Ali
"Dating is not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be a heart-pounding, stomach-wrenching, gut-churning exercise in pitting your fear of rejection and public humiliation against your desire to find a mate. Enjoy." - Darth Wong
With enough groups trying to impose abstinence-only education in schools, I feel that there will be heavy misinformation propagated about any such pill. Don't get me wrong, I think this will be great, but if the goal was truly to stop unwanted pregnancies and the spread of STDs, we need more in the way of combating the lies and misinformation put forth regarding current pregnancy-preventing measures as well...
biostem wrote:With enough groups trying to impose abstinence-only education in schools, I feel that there will be heavy misinformation propagated about any such pill. Don't get me wrong, I think this will be great, but if the goal was truly to stop unwanted pregnancies and the spread of STDs, we need more in the way of combating the lies and misinformation put forth regarding current pregnancy-preventing measures as well...
Like hell there will. Abstinence only is just a smokescreen for slut shaming and keeping women ignorant of their own bodies. A male contraceptive pill will be seen as all right and responsible, covered by insurance, and be taught about in schools.
Never underestimate the ingenuity and cruelty of the Irish.
biostem wrote:With enough groups trying to impose abstinence-only education in schools, I feel that there will be heavy misinformation propagated about any such pill. Don't get me wrong, I think this will be great, but if the goal was truly to stop unwanted pregnancies and the spread of STDs, we need more in the way of combating the lies and misinformation put forth regarding current pregnancy-preventing measures as well...
Like hell there will. Abstinence only is just a smokescreen for slut shaming and keeping women ignorant of their own bodies. A male contraceptive pill will be seen as all right and responsible, covered by insurance, and be taught about in schools.
I'm feeling like there's a disconnect in your reasoning. The only use for a male contraceptive pill would be to allow men to have sex with women without risk of conceiving. If men can have sex with women without the usual consequences, then women can have sex with men without these consequences, and the result would be the same. The only difference is who controls whether or not the measures are taken.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
His argument is that a lot of the people who are opposed to female contraception are doing it because of asinine refusal to accept that women have the right to decide not to become pregnant.
I can see how someone might think that, while still thinking that men have a right to decide not to impregnate. It's hypocritical, but not to an unprecedented degree.
Simon_Jester wrote:His argument is that a lot of the people who are opposed to female contraception are doing it because of asinine refusal to accept that women have the right to decide not to become pregnant.
I can see how someone might think that, while still thinking that men have a right to decide not to impregnate. It's hypocritical, but not to an unprecedented degree.
The problem is the people who do this almost always put the onus on women first until you mention that men have a responsibility too. It's a little hard to not think of their thinking as backwards.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
biostem wrote:With enough groups trying to impose abstinence-only education in schools, I feel that there will be heavy misinformation propagated about any such pill. Don't get me wrong, I think this will be great, but if the goal was truly to stop unwanted pregnancies and the spread of STDs, we need more in the way of combating the lies and misinformation put forth regarding current pregnancy-preventing measures as well...
Like hell there will. Abstinence only is just a smokescreen for slut shaming and keeping women ignorant of their own bodies. A male contraceptive pill will be seen as all right and responsible, covered by insurance, and be taught about in schools.
My point is that there are enough groups that are against contraceptives in *any* form, that they will propagate false information in order to *not* get this form of contraception approved or covered - look at how the "morning after pill" has been relegated to limited availability and isn't available over the counter.
To be clear, I *am* in favor of such a pill being introduced, (as long as it's safe).
