Male Birth Control Pills: A Potent Infertility
Feminists have loudly longed for a male birth control method, in the interests of contraceptive equity. Memphis based GTx recently announced that its experimental drug "C-31" achieves "100% male infertility" at a dose of only 0.1 mg per day (in rats).The key is something called a selective androgen receptor modulator, or SARM. “These compounds suppress a brain hormone, and shut down sperm production in a reversible way,” Jim Dalton, vice president of research and development at GTx, tells the Health Blog. GTx, based in Memphis, Tenn., specializes in hormone treatments for cancer and men’s health.The selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) approach to contraception could provide an added benefit of providing greater muscle mass to users. SARM research is booming, since SARMs can be modified to produce highly selective effects on the androgenic hormonal system. SARMs are not in themselves steroids, and may find their way into the drug cabinet of elite athletes eventually.
To achieve birth control, men would have to take such a pill for two to three months to deplete their sperm. It would take about the same amount of time for them to return to full reproductive capacity after stopping the medicine. Even if all goes well, any pill is still five to 10 years away. __WSJblog
More on the sociological impacts of such a drug at Sentient Developments.
H/T Futurismic
Labels: reproductive innovations
posted by al fin at 11:03 am
2 Comments:
So, my fellow gym rats, how many of us might be willing to accept sterility in exchange for anabolic steroid-free, above average muscle growth?
Tens of millions of us in all likelihood. And that's just the average among us; the elite are a foregone conclusion, I think.
A lot of men would feel better about having an active social life if they knew they were protected from unplanned fatherhood. That may be a greater worry for some men than the prevalence of STDs such as herpes and HIV.
As for the steroid-free muscle growth, that side-effect depends on the specific formulation of the SARM being used.
It will be at least 5 years before human males have this option.
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