“Contraception is at tipping point” says author and womens’ health expert Kate Muir. She’s not talking about women’s contraceptive options though, rather about the emergence of male contraception – which 80% of men and 95% of women want.
A male contraceptive pill, called YCT-529, began the first human trials in the UK in January. It was developed by Your Choice Therapeutics whose mission is to reduce the contraceptive burden on women. There are also several other options in development including gels and other pills which are also starting to be clinically tested.
No male option has yet completed trials, and it’s not yet clear which the front runner will be. The spokesperson for the Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI), Sabey Boswell, said it’s making more progress than ever before.
“I mean there’s a saying that male contraception has been 10 years away for the past 50 years. It’s something that is very difficult to get funding for but now I think we are making more progress than ever before. We have a lot of people researching and in different stages but there’s definitely a desire for male contraception.”
The female combined birth control pill was licensed for use over 60 years ago
Why doesn’t male contraception exist?
Male contraception has been trialled and developed since the 1960s, and the science behind the YCT-529 pill was first identified in the 1930s. This is when scientists first discovered that inhibiting vitamin A in mice made them infertile, but restoring it made fertility return to normal levels. However, all efforts so far have been stalled by problems with side effects.
Professor Christopher Barret is the head of Reproductive Science at the University of Dundee and has been working on non-hormonal methods since 2018, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He says that a ‘tolerance bar’ brings challenges in creating new options and bringing them to market as creating drugs for something such as cancer, which would bring side effects, has a ‘benefit to risk ratio’.
“With this particular thing of contraception there’s nothing wrong with people so your safety bar has to be enormous which is a big risk for companies”
Why is male contraception making progress now then?
“Men are more involved in parenting than ever”, says Kate Muir. The societal attitudes towards parenting are changing “and if they’re going to be involved in parenting, surely they should be involved in contraception too”.
The societal shift and recognition that more gender equity is needed in contraception is one of the drivers. The wake up call for men and women has also come from increasing awareness and vocalisation from women over the issues with female birth control, causing many men to realise how unfair it is what women go through.
It’s not just coming from women pushing back, or turning away from contraception. Dr Melanie Davis-Hall from The Lowdown, says there’s a drive to give men, particularly young, single men, more personal reproductive autonomy.
Recent legal and political changes have also compounded this interest. Abortion rights are under threat in the US, with the 2022 Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v Wade, and in Northern Ireland too… This has caused the demand for reversible vasectomies in the US to ‘shoot up’ according to Kate Muir, while also driving demand for other options.
Will people take it?
We surveyed men and women, largely in their 20s on their thoughts on the new developments and birth control in general.
81% of men said they’d be willing to use a reversible non-hormonal contraception option, and 95% of women said they’d want their male partner or partners to consider it.
The majority of men said they’d use it regardless of relationship status and were of course worried about side effects, long-term fertility and the risks around trying a new drug, but the appetite is there, and people we spoke to say they have a lot of interest coming from men.
Sabey Boswell said that they, “hear from men a lot, we get emails from men saying ‘hey I heard about this. I don’t know if I want to have kids get but I don’t want to commit to a vasectomy.”
There’s also a myth that if female contraceptive methods became available, that women would not trust men to take them.
We found in our survey that 57% of women would be likely or very likely to trust men to use these methods. In fact, 64% of women said that within a relationship they would consider relying on male contraception exclusively. There is a consensus that women are wanting men to share in the burden of birth control.
What will this mean?
Experts say male contraception could be a game changing and ‘revolutionary’ development, giving men autonomy, control of their reproduction and the ability to share the burden. For women, it could offer an exciting approach to contraception too.
Even with it in clinical trials, this means it’s still several years away from reaching the market and it could take more time to become mainstream. But it seems the appetite and the science is there.
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HeadlineMale contraception development at ‘a tipping point’
Short HeadlineMale contraception at 'a tipping point'
StandfirstThere are several new male contraceptive methods in development but the non-hormonal reversible YCT-529 pill is currently being tested on British men.
“Contraception is at tipping point” says author and womens’ health expert Kate Muir. She’s not talking about women’s contraceptive options though, rather about the emergence of male contraception – which 80% of men and 95% of women want.
A male contraceptive pill, called YCT-529, began the first human trials in the UK in January. It was developed by Your Choice Therapeutics whose mission is to reduce the contraceptive burden on women. There are also several other options in development including gels and other pills which are also starting to be clinically tested.
No male option has yet completed trials, and it’s not yet clear which the front runner will be. The spokesperson for the Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI), Sabey Boswell, said it’s making more progress than ever before.
“I mean there’s a saying that male contraception has been 10 years away for the past 50 years. It’s something that is very difficult to get funding for but now I think we are making more progress than ever before. We have a lot of people researching and in different stages but there’s definitely a desire for male contraception.”
The female combined birth control pill was licensed for use over 60 years ago
Why doesn’t male contraception exist?
Male contraception has been trialled and developed since the 1960s, and the science behind the YCT-529 pill was first identified in the 1930s. This is when scientists first discovered that inhibiting vitamin A in mice made them infertile, but restoring it made fertility return to normal levels. However, all efforts so far have been stalled by problems with side effects.
Professor Christopher Barret is the head of Reproductive Science at the University of Dundee and has been working on non-hormonal methods since 2018, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He says that a ‘tolerance bar’ brings challenges in creating new options and bringing them to market as creating drugs for something such as cancer, which would bring side effects, has a ‘benefit to risk ratio’.
“With this particular thing of contraception there’s nothing wrong with people so your safety bar has to be enormous which is a big risk for companies”
Why is male contraception making progress now then?
“Men are more involved in parenting than ever”, says Kate Muir. The societal attitudes towards parenting are changing “and if they’re going to be involved in parenting, surely they should be involved in contraception too”.
The societal shift and recognition that more gender equity is needed in contraception is one of the drivers. The wake up call for men and women has also come from increasing awareness and vocalisation from women over the issues with female birth control, causing many men to realise how unfair it is what women go through.
It’s not just coming from women pushing back, or turning away from contraception. Dr Melanie Davis-Hall from The Lowdown, says there’s a drive to give men, particularly young, single men, more personal reproductive autonomy.
Recent legal and political changes have also compounded this interest. Abortion rights are under threat in the US, with the 2022 Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v Wade, and in Northern Ireland too… This has caused the demand for reversible vasectomies in the US to ‘shoot up’ according to Kate Muir, while also driving demand for other options.
Will people take it?
We surveyed men and women, largely in their 20s on their thoughts on the new developments and birth control in general.
81% of men said they’d be willing to use a reversible non-hormonal contraception option, and 95% of women said they’d want their male partner or partners to consider it.
The majority of men said they’d use it regardless of relationship status and were of course worried about side effects, long-term fertility and the risks around trying a new drug, but the appetite is there, and people we spoke to say they have a lot of interest coming from men.
Sabey Boswell said that they, “hear from men a lot, we get emails from men saying ‘hey I heard about this. I don’t know if I want to have kids get but I don’t want to commit to a vasectomy.”
There’s also a myth that if female contraceptive methods became available, that women would not trust men to take them.
We found in our survey that 57% of women would be likely or very likely to trust men to use these methods. In fact, 64% of women said that within a relationship they would consider relying on male contraception exclusively. There is a consensus that women are wanting men to share in the burden of birth control.
What will this mean?
Experts say male contraception could be a game changing and ‘revolutionary’ development, giving men autonomy, control of their reproduction and the ability to share the burden. For women, it could offer an exciting approach to contraception too.
Even with it in clinical trials, this means it’s still several years away from reaching the market and it could take more time to become mainstream. But it seems the appetite and the science is there.
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