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The world has been promising male birth control for decades now and the techniques (There are several that all work at almost 100% and are fully reversible) are

The world has been promising male birth control for decades now and the techniques (There are several that all work at almost 100% and are fully reversible) are proven (numerous long term trials, I can think of two from a decade ago off the top of my head, one in Washington state and one in Australia, in their final stages, with fewer side-effects, complications and failures than female birth control) and much more effective than female birth control (100% in most cases). I've been reading about it actively since I was 15 and now I'm 30 and I'm still reading about how it's 5 years away. I want this so bad it hurts, but no one is bringing it to market. The problem is there isn't (enough of?) an incentive to actually put out these treatments. I guess the money just doesn't compare to female birth control.

puredemo 15y ago
If enough people want it, and they will, there is incentive.
- solarmist 15y ago
  But apparently not enough to bring it to market. This is just another example of a male birth control that won't even make it to clinical trials in the G8 nations for another two decades at a minimum. Are people just that much more skittish about messing with male birth control that it needs 10x the evidence of female birth control before it comes to market, or have government agencies just gotten that much more strict/paranoid?
hugh3 15y ago
The problem is there isn't (enough of?) an incentive to actually put out these treatments. I guess the money just doesn't compare to female birth control One issue is that public health authorities are (probably quite legitimately) concerned that improved male birth control methods will lead to a decrease in the use of condoms and an increase in STDs.
- frossie 15y ago
  Aside from the STD issue, a condom is a contraception method that is instantly verifiable. "It's okay baby, I have had the invisible sperm destroying procedure" is a bit harder to check.
  - solarmist 15y ago
    Why are women on the pill any more trust worthy? I've known women who say they're on the pill just because they didn't wanna use/buy condoms. Surprise, surprise I now know people that have kids that probably shouldn't. Also, condom misuse is a big problem in general and is the cause of the low rate of success for condoms 85% vs proper use 98%. The people that need condoms the most (uneducated/young people) are the ones that just throw them on without making sure they know how to properly use them.
    - hugh3 15y ago
      Also, condom misuse is a big problem in general and is the cause of the low rate of success for condoms 85% vs proper use 98%. The people that need condoms the most (uneducated/young people) are the ones that just throw them on without making sure they know how to properly use them. Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, kids should be taught to always use two redundant forms of birth control. No one form of (temporary) birth control has (afaik) higher than 98% success rate even when used perfectly.
      - jackowayed 15y ago
        It's worth noting what those percentages mean. They report percentages that mean that 1-n% of couples who use it as their sole birth control method for a year get pregnant. So 98% doesn't mean you get pregnant 1/50 times. 98% still isn't great (if you think about it, it means you're fairly likely to have 1 unwanted pregnancy in your life if you always use a 98% effective method), but it's a lot better than how it sounds to people who don't know what those percentages mean.
        15y ago

puredemo 15y ago

If enough people want it, and they will, there is incentive.

solarmist 15y ago
But apparently not enough to bring it to market. This is just another example of a male birth control that won't even make it to clinical trials in the G8 nations for another two decades at a minimum. Are people just that much more skittish about messing with male birth control that it needs 10x the evidence of female birth control before it comes to market, or have government agencies just gotten that much more strict/paranoid?

hugh3 15y ago

The problem is there isn't (enough of?) an incentive to actually put out these treatments. I guess the money just doesn't compare to female birth control One issue is that public health authorities are (probably quite legitimately) concerned that improved male birth control methods will lead to a decrease in the use of condoms and an increase in STDs.

frossie 15y ago
Aside from the STD issue, a condom is a contraception method that is instantly verifiable. "It's okay baby, I have had the invisible sperm destroying procedure" is a bit harder to check.
- solarmist 15y ago
  Why are women on the pill any more trust worthy? I've known women who say they're on the pill just because they didn't wanna use/buy condoms. Surprise, surprise I now know people that have kids that probably shouldn't. Also, condom misuse is a big problem in general and is the cause of the low rate of success for condoms 85% vs proper use 98%. The people that need condoms the most (uneducated/young people) are the ones that just throw them on without making sure they know how to properly use them.
  - hugh3 15y ago
    Also, condom misuse is a big problem in general and is the cause of the low rate of success for condoms 85% vs proper use 98%. The people that need condoms the most (uneducated/young people) are the ones that just throw them on without making sure they know how to properly use them. Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, kids should be taught to always use two redundant forms of birth control. No one form of (temporary) birth control has (afaik) higher than 98% success rate even when used perfectly.
    - jackowayed 15y ago
      It's worth noting what those percentages mean. They report percentages that mean that 1-n% of couples who use it as their sole birth control method for a year get pregnant. So 98% doesn't mean you get pregnant 1/50 times. 98% still isn't great (if you think about it, it means you're fairly likely to have 1 unwanted pregnancy in your life if you always use a 98% effective method), but it's a lot better than how it sounds to people who don't know what those percentages mean.
      - 15y ago