Male Oral Contraceptive Discussion

[Nehkara]

Men get the heads up on possible oral contraceptive

The secret of GTx' oral formulation was the development of a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM), which had the ability to suppress sperm production.

SARMs are new synthetic non-steroidal molecules which have the ability to mimic steroids by acting on receptors but without the unwanted side effects.

But unlike steroids, SARMs can easily be formulated into an oral form, which, Dalton said, would increase convenience for the users.

GTx' male contraceptive candidate C-31 works by suppressing luteinising hormone, which in turn, suppresses testosterone production. A lack of testosterone stops the production of sperm.

Dalton and Ohio State University graduate student Amanda Jones treated animals for three months with the oral formulation and found that sperm production was halted. When taken off the medication, the researchers found the animals' fertility returned after 100 days.

C-31 as an oral male contraceptive is still about five years away from Phase I clinical trials.

Am I the only one who has noticed that pharmaceutical companies have been putting very little effort into developing a viable contraceptive alternative for men?

I mean, we seem to have a promising drug in the works here but five years until Phase I of clinical trials? Really?

Speaking as a man who hates condoms, it is difficult to deal with. You have to have a girlfriend who is willing to take the pill and that you can trust to take it. I, of course, will wear condoms if she is not comfortable taking the pill but seriously... the lack of options for men is just ridiculous. None of our primary options are very good... abstinence is not a solution, condoms are at best clumsy, and a vasectomy is permanent.

I really wish that there were better options. Hopefully some pharmaceutical company wakes up soon and puts some effort into developing an effective male contraceptive in a timely fashion.

SARMs sound great but we are likely looking at 8-10 years before they are available, if it ever happens.

[Thunderball]

Female Birth Control pills took a very long time to develop as well... hell, they weren't even originally designed for that sole purpose. Their design was strongly influenced by the medical requirement to balance out erratic and painful menstrual cycles. Men really don't have a medical reason to take them, which pushes it down the priority list.

They have to tread very carefully with this one. In an increasingly litigious society, they have to make absolutely sure there is zero percent chance that it renders the user infertile. Even if it comes out in 8-10 years, I definitely won't use it. I'll let the early adopters have fun with it until it has been proven to be as safe and side-effect free as possible. I have no medical reason to take it, my girlfriend does. Unless that changes, I'm not.

Just because it works on lab rats does not mean it will work on humans.

[Sylvanfan]

Well for women to take birth control it's not exactly an easy thing, and it does cause a disturbance for them. They do need to go to the doctor to have it prescribed and they have to go through a thourough exam at regular intervals to continue renewing their prescription.

Really a male oral contraceptive would certainly have some sort of side effect that may not be worth it, and would you be willing to continually get it if you had to have a prostate exam every 12 months in order to renew your prescription? Plus as a man the worst that ever is going to happen to you is that you have a child that you'll have to support. You won't have to go through labour, you won't have to miss work to nurse a new born and give birth. So I can see why it's a very low priority for the pharmaceutical industry. Especially when the current male contraceptive is proven to be pretty effective and inexpensive and has very little in terms of side effects. Too bad if it's a pain in the arse and ruins the moment for you.

[JD]

I'd be highly reluctant to use something that alters the natural balance of a hormone like testosterone. Who knows what behavioural and physiological changes that might cause?

Then again, isn't that the sort of thing women go through when taking the pill?

I guess the thing here is that if you're not willing to wear a condom, better not have sex with someone you're not willing to impregnate. It's always best to align your behaviour and expectations with natural laws. Ones like, "sexual intercourse leads to pregnancy".

[Nehkara]

Alright, so apparently there is no one else who is of the same mind as me. Sorry guys, thought this discussion would be of interest but I guess not.

[redforever]

[quote Speaking as a man who hates condoms, it is difficult to deal with. You have to have a girlfriend who is willing to take the pill and that you can trust to take it. I, of course, will wear condoms if she is not comfortable taking the pill but seriously... the lack of options for men is just ridiculous. None of our primary options are very good... abstinence is not a solution, condoms are at best clumsy, and a vasectomy is permanent.

I really wish that there were better options. Hopefully some pharmaceutical company wakes up soon and puts some effort into developing an effective male contraceptive in a timely fashion.

SARMs sound great but we are likely looking at 8-10 years before they are available, if it ever happens.[/quote]

1. And that trust has to work both ways.

2. Women have felt this way for a long time. Perhaps more options out there for women than men at the present time, but each has to be weighed for their effectiveness and reliability, their side effects and their ease of use.

[Sylvanfan]

It is being discussed....Fact is that there are contraceptives out there. So if they do successfully develop a product like this...it really adds nothing new, just something different and it probably doesn't add any real money to a company's bottom line to make it worth all the testing and any possible liability costs that a company that devlops this would absorb. With Viagra and those products...you have a huge number of people about to enter that cohort who will likely use that product that it was worth developing for the potential sales boom. A male oral contraceptive is likely going to appeal to mean between the age of 18 to 35. By 35 a majority of the population is or has been married and would qualify for a vesectomy (another option). Plus all these people on average will have 50+ years of life ahead of them to develop side effects and go after the company. Huge, huge liablity and hence why it's not a product they're urgently trying to develop.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Alright, so apparently there is no one else who is of the same mind as me. Sorry guys, thought this discussion would be of interest but I guess not.

I agree the basic sentiment of your comments. One could indeed father a child in the not too distant future due to the fact that he was confident that someone else took their birth control pills on time(Which turned out not to be the case). I know a couple of girls who got pregnant in similar fashion. It would be good to know you have a sense of control over such things as well.

However in the big picture of humanity I wish things like this really and truly were given a back seat. Viagra for instance has made more money and will continue to make more money than any drug developed for, certain forms of cancer, AIDS, heart disease, MS, and multitudes of other terrible illnesses and conditions. To take resources away from these causes so people like you don't have to wear a condom or depend on a woman taking birth control would be a travesty.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by redforever

1. And that trust has to work both ways.

2. Women have felt this way for a long time. Perhaps more options out there for women than men at the present time, but each has to be weighed for their effectiveness and reliability, their side effects and their ease of use.

1. As I said, I am willing to wear condoms, just don't like them.

2. Women have TONS of options. From female condoms, diaphragms, IUDs, injections, birth control pills, foams, Nuva Ring, tubal ligation, and others.

Men have two options: Condoms, vasectomy.

It would be nice for men to have more options and they seem to be slow in coming. I'm not sure why it should be almost completely up to the woman for effective long term birth control. Condoms are not a very good solution in a long term relationship. Also, there are quite a few women out there who have trouble with hormonal birth control. It would be nice if the man could step up and take responsibility for long term contraception if the woman could not.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

I agree the basic sentiment of your comments. One could indeed father a child in the not too distant future due to the fact that he was confident that someone else took their birth control pills on time(Which turned out not to be the case). I know a couple of girls who got pregnant in similar fashion. It would be good to know you have a sense of control over such things as well.

However in the big picture of humanity I wish things like this really and truly were given a back seat. Viagra for instance has made more money and will continue to make more money than any drug developed for, certain forms of cancer, AIDS, heart disease, MS, and multitudes of other terrible illnesses and conditions. To take resources away from these causes so people like you don't have to wear a condom or depend on a woman taking birth control would be a travesty.

There is more than enough money in the Pharmaceutical industry that if they wanted to, they could spend a bundle more on cancer and AIDs. The miniscule amount of money they would need to simply develop this drug is nothing compared to how much money is involved in AIDS and cancer research.

I agree though, I would not support the development of any drug if it honeslty and truly took away resources from development of treatments and cures for diseases that are debilitating or life-threatening.

[comrade]

I too greatly dislike condoms, as it reduces my pleasure significantly, and would be very interested in some sort other temporary male contraceptive. I'd certainly like more self determination in the matter. I also take offence to the notion that my interest is selfish and delaying real breakthroughs in other areas. Granted though, I'm not hoping other scientists drop what they're doing to work on this, I just wish a male contraceptive were available.

As for the article does anyone know more about the steroids they mention and what their side-effects are? Or what about the effects of long term testosterone suppression of a drug like this?

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by comrade

As for the article does anyone know more about the steroids they mention and what their side-effects are? Or what about the effects of long term testosterone suppression of a drug like this?

Why do you think this is still 8-10 years away? No one knows the side effects and how severe they are. Than factor in that people who use a product like this have 50 years living in front of them...There is a huge amount of liability that could be associated with something like this if it's not tested properly and the tests aren't given enough time to get a read on it.

Something like Viagra for example is used for other medical purposes. My wife is a tech at the U of A hospital pharmacy and they dispense the actual drug (Viagra is a trade name) quite often to treat conditions at the stollery childrens hospital. The fact that it ever got marketed as a ED drug was for pure profitability. So something like this probably is going to need to be proven to treat some other type of legitimate medical condition as opposed to being a convenient option.

[Nehkara]

I do agree wholeheartedly that any drug needs to be properly tested... just frustrated I guess.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

2. Women have TONS of options. From female condoms, diaphragms, IUDs, injections, birth control pills, foams, Nuva Ring, tubal ligation, and others.

Men have two options: Condoms, vasectomy.

Exactly. Tons of options. Sex is a mutual act (last I checked), and therefore both parties have a responsibility. Don't want to use condoms, make a concerted effort with your partner to adhere to an alternate idea. Even then, condoms are not exactly the end of the world.

Then you mention trusting the partner... you don't trust the woman to take her pill, then why are you with her... and candidly, you think men are going to do better? Hell, I don't even remember to take my multivitamin everyday, I'm gonna remember to take my sperm killer pill?

Frankly, male contraceptives are a waste of precious resources. Effort should be made in helping guys NOT shoot blanks, rather than make them shoot blanks. There are so many more important things to invest time, research and resources to, rather than another Vioxx-type lawsuit in the making.

[Flashpoint]

Yeah, because young men are responsible and will take it every day.

[Agamemnon]

Some men who are sexually active would probably be VERY consistent in taking this thing... you can have pleasurable sex and not have to worry about babies (just STD's). I'd be very interested in an oral contraceptive, I'd take it every day. It can't be that hard.

[redforever]

As far as I am concerned, the primary reason there is more study put into birth control for women is because they are the ones who will get pregnant without birth control.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Exactly. Tons of options. Sex is a mutual act (last I checked), and therefore both parties have a responsibility. Don't want to use condoms, make a concerted effort with your partner to adhere to an alternate idea. Even then, condoms are not exactly the end of the world.

Then you mention trusting the partner... you don't trust the woman to take her pill, then why are you with her... and candidly, you think men are going to do better? Hell, I don't even remember to take my multivitamin everyday, I'm gonna remember to take my sperm killer pill?

Frankly, male contraceptives are a waste of precious resources. Effort should be made in helping guys NOT shoot blanks, rather than make them shoot blanks. There are so many more important things to invest time, research and resources to, rather than another Vioxx-type lawsuit in the making.

First of all, of course sex is a mutual act... and both parties should be equally willing and able to take the initiative to prevent pregnancy. Men should have more than two options in taking part in preventing pregnancy, and they should have (as was nicely said by comrade) more self determination.

Secondly, many men in trusting and loving relationships have become fathers when they did not want to simply because the woman has the ultimate control over contraception in most relationships. This happens both by accident and on purpose. I think a good number of men would welcome the increased degree of self determination that would come with a viable long term contraceptive solution. It is certainly not as easy as "if you think she might, then dump her". Most men never suspect that their girlfriend/fiance/wife would do something like that but it happens anyway. You can call them whatever you want but it happens more often than you would think.

Thirdly, you have to be kidding me. The amount of resources in the pharmaceutical industry is HUGE. They could have done this long before now with little effort and money. Also, the lawsuit arguements are moot... if the drug is well-made it should have no large lawsuit problems... and if you want to completely avoid lawsuits then you might as well stop research into medicine altogether.

Also, I would definitely be in favour of research into restoring fertility to men who have lost it as well as into causes for losing fertility. It is also an important issue.

[Nehkara]

Also, as it mentions in the article, since it would take 100 days for a man to become fertile again after stopping the drugs, missing a few pills would not have drastic consequences as it does sometimes with women.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

Yeah, because young men are responsible and will take it every day.

You would characterize young women as more responsible overall than young men? That is an interesting generalization.

Also... again... it would be more flexible than the woman's birth control pill as it would take 100 days to become fertile once you stop taking the medication... so missing a few wouldn't be a big deal.