Male Contraceptive Pill To Hit The Market Soon
THE MALE contraceptive pill is a ‘step closer’ to hitting the market, scientists have said.
Fifty years after the introduction of the female pill, researchers have yet to find a way to render men temporarily infertile without significant side effects.
However, academics at Minnesota University told the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting yesterday (June 3) that they had made a significant advance.
The scientists reported that they had made small changes to a previous version of the male pill to make it effective over a longer period and easier to take.
Gunda Georg, head of the research team, spelled out what a male pill would have to be like before it could go on sale.
“It would have to be soluble so it could be taken by mouth. It would start working fairly quickly and it wouldn’t diminish libido. It would be safe even if taken for decades,” she said.
“And because some users would eventually want to have children, its impact on fertility would be reversible, with no lingering ill effects on sperm or embryos.”
A survey carried out recently of 84,000 people found that 52 per cent of men said they would take a daily birth control pill if it was available.
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