8mo ago

Male birth control breakthrough safely switches off fit sperm for a while

newatlas.com Male birth control breakthrough safely switches off fit sperm for a while

A non-hormonal, reversible and non-toxic male birth control could be a step closer, with scientists successfully targeting a protein that's crucial in making fertile sperm. Knocking this protein out for a period of time would give men control over their protection window, much like oral…

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Friendly reminder of the core problem: medical treatments are all balanced against the risk of what it counteracts.
Undergoing physical and chemical changes to grow another creature inside you and have it damage everything on the way out is pretty risky. Female birth control only has to be less risky than that.
A male has zero physiological risk from impregnating someone. Therefore, anything except a miracle drug with high efficacy and almost zero side effects is going to stall at the trial stage.
On another note, that speaks to how safe and effective vasectomies are.
- Written by someone who has never had to pay child support.
  
  Yeah zero psychological risk is a bit of an overstatement. Zero physical maybe, but there's definitely psychological risks, and I'm not even thinking about child support
  Edit: I can't read, it says physiological and I'm just deficient in the reading
  
  They said Physiological not Psychological. There's a considerable difference between those two words.
  
  My bad, I can't read 🤦
  
  The letters I and C?
  
  I meant their meanings, rather than their spellings lol.
  
  Have you ever had a toddler hit you over the head with a plastic bat? There IS physical risk in raising a child.
  
  Upvoting the edit
- I will say this as often as I can, getting the ol snip snip was the best decision I've ever made.
  
  Who doesn’t love cream pies!?!?!?!
  
  Do you have kids or did you never want them?
  
  Not that guy, but I have one kid who I love to bits. Got a vasectomy when he was 2 years old cause we would explode if we had a second kid, lol. One is enough for us. We've been incredibly fortunate so we decided we didn't need any more surprises.
  The doc who did mine was a military vet who went into urology after serving. I remember reading the pamphlet on the operation and it said the vasectomy only took 15 minutes. I asked him, "It only takes 15 minutes??" and he responded, "Eight."
  I like a good speedrun as much as the next guy, but I told him to take his sweet time lol. Ain't in no rush, doc.
  Recovery was super chill. Couldn't roughhouse with my son for a week or two, and that's about it. I've got some fun titanium clamps chilling in my junk now, so that's fun. I'm basically Wolverine.
  
  Never wanted them, pretty sure I'd have a mental breakdown if I tried to raise one
  
  Agreed. I have zero regret.
- There are also plenty of medical reasons for even sexually inactive women to take hormonal birth control. This isn't only about pregnancy, which as you say can have all sorts of physical consequences.

302 comments