7 ms·

COSO, an ultrasound-based and reversible approach to male contraception

41 points by gpvos 5y ago

phkahler 5y ago
>> The technology of the COSO is based on a study of the Parsemus Foundation from 2012 in which successful research was conducted on ultrasound contraception. Isn't that the same organization that has been claiming to bring RISUG to the US for the last 10 years with ZERO results? I'm starting to think they're actually a shill claiming to tackle this issue so that nobody else will. Their goal seem to be the opposite of what they say.
Tepix 5y ago
Here is the 2012 project that this product was inspired by: https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contraceptive/ https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contrac...
AndrewDucker 5y ago
I'd love to have effective male contraception. But the previous work on this doesn't make it look like it's the answer: https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contraceptive/ https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contrac... See the section "Effective contraception in humans remains elusive"
- giantg2 5y ago
  Yeah, those numbers don't look good - 20% motility and 50% of normal count sounds like potential for pregnancy. Maybe reduced, but still there.
- strathmeyer 5y ago
  Turns out "take a hot bath" doesn't make anyone any money. It's very common in poor countries such as India. (https://www.dontcookyourballs.com/ https://www.dontcookyourballs.com/)
- dymk 5y ago
  DMAU as a pill or injection appears to be very effective. Studies are still ongoing. It’s been studied for a long time, and finally it seems there’s an appetite from men widespread enough to make it feasible commercially. https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/one-step-closer-is-male-hormonal-contraception-finally-within-reach/ https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/one-step-closer-is-male-... I’ve done two drug trials with this stuff and it’s pretty cool. It appears to make men totally infertile while they’re on the drug, with a quick recovery once off of it. It might help prevent balding, too.
  - iSnow 5y ago
    That sounds amazing. It will come to late for me, but I wish it had been available when I was younger.
iSnow 5y ago
I see a couple of acceptance problems with the device. First, men a notoriously squeamish when it comes to their testicles. "Heating" without telling the temperature won't fly with many. I guess it doesn't have to be hot as it probably only needs to be warm enough to relax the cremaster muscles. If it has to be uncomfortably hot, I see little chance in the market. Second, I'd expect the ultrasound to hurt. The epididymis is pretty sensitive to pain. Third, it will feel like gambling as the female partner doesn't really know whether all sperm is killed or whether she will end up pregnant. And for the male, it will be a leap of faith as well. That should improve if a lot of users report no unwanted pregnancies, but in the beginning...
- giantg2 5y ago
  4th, there's no data about return of fertility in humans after longterm use and if it raises birth defects.
  - iSnow 5y ago
    And 5th, I have no idea how long sperm remains viable in the prostate, but I imagine that you would have to ultrasound your balls regularly or end up with live swimmers in a very unpredictable way. I'd imagine you'd destroy them and maybe their precursors, then have protected sex for 2-3 times to get rid of the viable sperm and only after that end up with 1-2 weeks of infertility.
    - giantg2 5y ago
      The links to data in other comments suggests a treatment would take about 2 weeks to become effective (rid the system of existing viable sperm), then last approximately 6 months. Although, if you look at the graphs/numbers it seems there still are a small number of motile sperm (looks to me like approximately 50% reduction in count with 20% motility). Seems like it doesn't completely eliminate the possibility of pregnancy.
- clarkevans 5y ago
  Even so, providing direct control of fertility by a male partner is an important problem. Currently, the only control option that permits unprotected sex is a vasectomy -- this is expensive, requires many months, and is not always reversible. On the female side there is the UID and hormonal interventions -- both of which have downsides for the female partner.
tomcooks 5y ago
In the past men used to take really warm baths to temporarily become infertile, i assume this uses the same process In related news: "coso" is used in italian to mean d.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 5y ago
  To be fair, coso could be used to refer to any generic thing, male (in Italian language everything is male or female). Unfortunately given the context, this could only refer to that.
RegBarclay 5y ago
I wonder how long the effect lasts? How often would a man have to do this to maintain continuous contraception? Seems like there might be some long term effects from repeated ultrasonic treatment of any human tissue.
- dgfitz 5y ago
  ~2 weeks
- raverbashing 5y ago
  How long but also how long does it take before the procedure is done and your sperm is sterile. Minutes? Hours? Days?
rdl 5y ago
I'd love to see more innovation happening in this space. The one project I followed for a while seems to have stalled (or never really got off the ground) -- https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/vasalgel/ https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/vasalgel/ (which had solid results in India but got patented and locked up by a non-profit)
BurningFrog 5y ago
"So far, the procedure has been applied to animals. Therefore, the technical parameters are hypothetically transferred to humans."
poulpy123 5y ago
it's always a bad sign when the commercial slides and the nice 3D renders are ready before any scientific study of the device
- gpvos 5y ago
  The James Dyson award is a design award. On second view, this appears to be a master thesis project by a technical design student. So the product does not yet exist, and there are lots of problems with getting it there. I did not properly see all that before posting it; my apologies. Nevertheless, it's an interesting idea to speculate about. And it seems to be one of the more promising ideas in this area.
causi 5y ago
Feels like snake oil. There's no data on how the device uses ultrasound to destroy sperm. There's no data on how often it must be used to keep live sperm from getting to the prostate where they cannot be destroyed. The biggest section is boasting about how they had a bunch of guys off the street draw up idea for the appearance of the device. Red flag, red flag, red flag.
swader999 5y ago
How long does a ball heating session work for?

41 points by gpvos 5y ago

>> The technology of the COSO is based on a study of the Parsemus Foundation from 2012 in which successful research was conducted on ultrasound contraception. Isn't that the same organization that has been claiming to bring RISUG to the US for the last 10 years with ZERO results? I'm starting to think they're actually a shill claiming to tackle this issue so that nobody else will. Their goal seem to be the opposite of what they say.

Tepix 5y ago

Here is the 2012 project that this product was inspired by: https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contraceptive/ https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contrac...

AndrewDucker 5y ago

I'd love to have effective male contraception. But the previous work on this doesn't make it look like it's the answer: https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contraceptive/ https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contrac... See the section "Effective contraception in humans remains elusive"

giantg2 5y ago
Yeah, those numbers don't look good - 20% motility and 50% of normal count sounds like potential for pregnancy. Maybe reduced, but still there.
strathmeyer 5y ago
Turns out "take a hot bath" doesn't make anyone any money. It's very common in poor countries such as India. (https://www.dontcookyourballs.com/ https://www.dontcookyourballs.com/)
dymk 5y ago
DMAU as a pill or injection appears to be very effective. Studies are still ongoing. It’s been studied for a long time, and finally it seems there’s an appetite from men widespread enough to make it feasible commercially. https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/one-step-closer-is-male-hormonal-contraception-finally-within-reach/ https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/one-step-closer-is-male-... I’ve done two drug trials with this stuff and it’s pretty cool. It appears to make men totally infertile while they’re on the drug, with a quick recovery once off of it. It might help prevent balding, too.
- iSnow 5y ago
  That sounds amazing. It will come to late for me, but I wish it had been available when I was younger.

iSnow 5y ago

I see a couple of acceptance problems with the device. First, men a notoriously squeamish when it comes to their testicles. "Heating" without telling the temperature won't fly with many. I guess it doesn't have to be hot as it probably only needs to be warm enough to relax the cremaster muscles. If it has to be uncomfortably hot, I see little chance in the market. Second, I'd expect the ultrasound to hurt. The epididymis is pretty sensitive to pain. Third, it will feel like gambling as the female partner doesn't really know whether all sperm is killed or whether she will end up pregnant. And for the male, it will be a leap of faith as well. That should improve if a lot of users report no unwanted pregnancies, but in the beginning...

giantg2 5y ago
4th, there's no data about return of fertility in humans after longterm use and if it raises birth defects.
- iSnow 5y ago
  And 5th, I have no idea how long sperm remains viable in the prostate, but I imagine that you would have to ultrasound your balls regularly or end up with live swimmers in a very unpredictable way. I'd imagine you'd destroy them and maybe their precursors, then have protected sex for 2-3 times to get rid of the viable sperm and only after that end up with 1-2 weeks of infertility.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    The links to data in other comments suggests a treatment would take about 2 weeks to become effective (rid the system of existing viable sperm), then last approximately 6 months. Although, if you look at the graphs/numbers it seems there still are a small number of motile sperm (looks to me like approximately 50% reduction in count with 20% motility). Seems like it doesn't completely eliminate the possibility of pregnancy.
clarkevans 5y ago
Even so, providing direct control of fertility by a male partner is an important problem. Currently, the only control option that permits unprotected sex is a vasectomy -- this is expensive, requires many months, and is not always reversible. On the female side there is the UID and hormonal interventions -- both of which have downsides for the female partner.

tomcooks 5y ago

In the past men used to take really warm baths to temporarily become infertile, i assume this uses the same process In related news: "coso" is used in italian to mean d.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 5y ago
To be fair, coso could be used to refer to any generic thing, male (in Italian language everything is male or female). Unfortunately given the context, this could only refer to that.

RegBarclay 5y ago

I wonder how long the effect lasts? How often would a man have to do this to maintain continuous contraception? Seems like there might be some long term effects from repeated ultrasonic treatment of any human tissue.

dgfitz 5y ago
~2 weeks
raverbashing 5y ago
How long but also how long does it take before the procedure is done and your sperm is sterile. Minutes? Hours? Days?

rdl 5y ago

I'd love to see more innovation happening in this space. The one project I followed for a while seems to have stalled (or never really got off the ground) -- https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/vasalgel/ https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/vasalgel/ (which had solid results in India but got patented and locked up by a non-profit)

BurningFrog 5y ago

"So far, the procedure has been applied to animals. Therefore, the technical parameters are hypothetically transferred to humans."

poulpy123 5y ago

it's always a bad sign when the commercial slides and the nice 3D renders are ready before any scientific study of the device

gpvos 5y ago
The James Dyson award is a design award. On second view, this appears to be a master thesis project by a technical design student. So the product does not yet exist, and there are lots of problems with getting it there. I did not properly see all that before posting it; my apologies. Nevertheless, it's an interesting idea to speculate about. And it seems to be one of the more promising ideas in this area.

causi 5y ago

Feels like snake oil. There's no data on how the device uses ultrasound to destroy sperm. There's no data on how often it must be used to keep live sperm from getting to the prostate where they cannot be destroyed. The biggest section is boasting about how they had a bunch of guys off the street draw up idea for the appearance of the device. Red flag, red flag, red flag.

swader999 5y ago

How long does a ball heating session work for?