A new revolutionary contraceptive rub on gel is being tested on men which could prevent the production of sperm and prevent unwanted pregnancies. The new gel has two synthetic hormones, progestin and testosterone, that will reduce testosterone levels in the testes, enough to stop sperm being made. If you're wondering why testosterone is used in the product, it's simply to keep the levels balanced throughout the body.
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Believe it or not, you won't be rubbing the gel into your genitals. Instead, men will need to rub half a teaspoon of the gel onto their upper arms or shoulders every day. The gel has been trialed on more than 400 couples in the US, UK, Sweden, Italy, Kenya and Chile.
How will it work?
The men in the study will use the gel for four months whilst their female partners are on contraception. Once the male subjects’ sperm count has lowered to less than one million, their partner will stop their contraception, leaving the gel as the only birth control for a year. Sperm counts dropped to less than a million milliliters from 15 to 200 million. According to the Program Director for Contraception Development Diana Blithe who spoke to the Technology Review: “It’s not a lot of effort. It’s just remembering to use it every day."
A type of male contraception has already been in the works for some time. Vasalgel is a gel that would be injected into the vas deferens (the tube that carries the sperm from the testes) and would act as a barrier in the same way as the coil for women. The procedure would also include a reversal method but the method has only been successfully tested on primates. At the moment the only available contraceptives for men are condoms, a vasectomy or the ill-advised pull out method.
It could be several years before we can use the final product of the gel or vasalgel. In the past, a worldwide study suggested that only 25% of men would use a daily male contraceptive.
