An on-demand male birth control pill?
Blocking sperm for just a few hours seems utopian but this is the latest idea of some researchers to develop a male contraceptive pill that has proved effective in the first tests. All the details
The first studies on the birth control pill began in the 1950s and then reached the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (Fda) in 1960, but it concerned only women. For men, on the other hand, we will have to wait for 1970 and, today, 50 years later there is still nothing better than the condom (essential to protect against sexually transmitted diseases but not 100% safe from the point of view of contraception) or vasectomy (invasive and effective but not always reversible).
Now, however, a group of researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York is working on an innovative male birth control pill for two reasons: it has a limited duration over time and does not use hormones.
"There is a pressing need for an effective and reversible oral contraceptive for men and while many different approaches have been tried over the years, none have yet reached the market," Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the BBC , told the BBC. University of Sheffield.
THE SWITCH THAT BLOCKS THE SPERM
When scientists began a study on adenylate cyclase inhibitors they weren't looking for a way to block sperm, an idea that came later, after realizing its potential for male contraception.
Among the various functions connected to adenylate cyclase, in fact, there is also that of being essential for the motility and maturation of spermatozoa. According to the researchers, by deactivating this enzyme it is possible to "paralyze" the spermatozoa so that they do not reach the egg and, therefore, fertilization does not take place.
THE TEST
It must be said that so far the test has only been conducted on mice and that it will still take some time before experimenting on humans, but the first results are encouraging. Furthermore, according to what Pacey said, human sperm tests have also been done in the laboratory and have proven to be equally satisfactory.
In the first study , funded by the US National Institutes of Health and published in Nature Communications , researchers gave the animals a single dose of the drug, called TDI-11861, which blocked sperm before, during and after mating.
The effect lasted about 3 hours and after 24 hours it seemed to have completely vanished, so much so that the spermatozoa had returned to functioning normally.
“The approach described here, which consists in eliminating a key enzyme in sperm, which is essential for the movement of sperm cells, is a truly innovative idea – explained Pacey -. The fact that he's able to act, and be reversed, so quickly is really exciting."
It remains to consider that precisely because the enzyme is also involved in other processes in our body, it will be necessary to evaluate any side effects which, at the moment, have not emerged.
ADVANTAGES…
If it were therefore to prove equally safe and effective in men, it would be a contraceptive that could only be taken when necessary, without affecting long-term fertility and not creating hormonal imbalances.
…AND DISADVANTAGES
Obviously, as in the case of the contraceptive pill for women, it would not protect against sexually transmitted infections and therefore could not be a comparable alternative to the condom.
OTHER STUDIES WORK IN PROGRESS
However, there is currently a lot of research going on around the world to give new options to men. Two experimental testosterone-reducing pills are being studied in the United States; in Australia a hydrogel-based contraceptive is being tested which would block sperm for about 24 months and, again in the States, another non-hormonal drug would appear to be able to reduce the number of sperm.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/una-pillola-anticoncezionale-maschile-on-demand/ on Wed, 01 Mar 2023 09:46:34 +0000.