Groundbreaking Male Contraceptive Study Hindered By Patient Dropouts

Researchers have finally found a male contraceptive that offers a 96% success rate, but unfortunately were forced to end their study early after participants dropped out due to the method’s side effects.

These included mood swings, lowered sex drive, skin issues, or pretty much everything that women on hormonal birth control have been putting up with for decades.

The push for a men’s birth control have been in the spotlight of late, particularly after a Danish study confirmed that there was a clear link between being on the pill and being depressed. Of course, this is just one of the many side effects of hormonal birth control in women, which have been well documented since this early days of this kind of contraception.

Now, the University of Edinburgh believes that an equal playing field for hormonal birth control could be on the cards in the very near future. However, too many men found the side effects that many women live with every day to be simply too much.

The University’s study, which was released on Friday, found that a male contraceptive injection could be almost as effective as the female pill, at a rate of around 96%. Now, it’s certainly not the 99.9% that the female birth control pill boasts, but it’s something.

For the study researchers took 320 men between the ages of 18 and 45 and gave them the injections over the course of 56 weeks. The injection involves two hormones, progestogen, which lowers sperm counts, and testosterone, to reduce the effect of the progestogen on the body.

The study was found to be a success, but ultimately had to end early when 20 men dropped out due to a number of reported side effects. The researchers were able to provide more details:

“Of these 20, 6 men discontinued only for changes in mood and 6 men discontinued for the following single reasons: acne, pain or panic at first injections, palpitations, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction.”

Another eight left the study for reasons relating to mood changes.

But even with the drop out rate and the study’s early conclusion, researchers are still positive that there will soon be a male birth control option available on the market.

“The study found it is possible to have a hormonal contraception for men that reduces the risk of unplanned pregnancies in the partners of men who use it,” said Mario Philip Reyes Festin from the World Health Organisation in a press release.

Richard Anderson, the study’s lead author, expressed many of the same sentiments, despite noting that it would be some time before a commercial product would be readily available. He maintained that the study was “a great step forward” and that most of the participants reported side effects in “quite a mild way” despite the withdrawals. Concerns were reasonably benign, but some participants did report “feeling down”.

Anderson said that the ultimate aim with male birth control is to provide more options to those already available.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be a matter of someone taking it, and if they find the side effects too bad, they’re going to stop taking it and look for something else.”

“It’s a matter of trying to improve the option choices so that people find something that works for them.”

Luckily for the ladies out there struggling with life on the pill, this study isn’t the only one looking into male birth control options. US researchers have plans to study hormonal birth control using various gels. A private company is also currently working on a reversible vasectomy that will work without altering hormones.

When it comes down to it, we at SAHM still can’t believe that the job of managing contraception falls to women pretty much all of the time.

After all, men are fertile all the time, while women can only fall pregnant a few days out of every month. That’s some man logic right there.