Early contraceptive scientists (male) started with male contraceptive developments but they had side effects like acne, mood swings, etc. so they switched to female versions.
Of course female contraceptives/hormone therapy has side effects, but they are essentially the only versions approved by the FDA and are pushed in clinical settings once females become teenagers.
New hormone-free sensor/data based approaches to family planing are gaining popularity because of this.
As a man, if I could get a trestolone/testosterone/metenolone blend for male birth control, I would be all over that. But a direct analog to current female hormones in a male version would probably just be pure non-blended trestolone and likely come with too many side effects for me without some DHT-derivative hormones to balance it out. Which is what happens to women today.
And the efficacy is still too low compared to condoms/IUDs/vasectomy/vasalgel, although the efficacy would also roughly match that of female hormonal birth control.
Hopefully RISUG/vasalgel procedures prove safe, effective, and cheap and we can have that as an option soon.
The two aren't equivalent. That male contraceptive trial required far higher, both in absolute and relative terms, quantities of hormones. It wasn't killed because of just mood swings, it was stopped because of a suicide attempt, despite a fairly small group (only ~300 subjects).
If you look at the studies, those that use progesterone and testosterone will give 2-4x the dose used for women for progesterone and testosterone dosages that are on the lighter side of what a bodybuilder could use if they were doping.
The is also the aspect that many (most?) women would not trust the man to regularly take the contraceptive, considering that the woman is the one getting pregnant. I think that would make male contraceptive a non starter already.
Many men also don't trust women to take a contraceptive. So, that makes a male contraceptive quite useful, TYVM.
In addition, many men understand quite well the effects that birth control pills have on the women they care about. If there were a male alternative, many of them would happily try it.
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 35.2 ms ] threadOf course female contraceptives/hormone therapy has side effects, but they are essentially the only versions approved by the FDA and are pushed in clinical settings once females become teenagers.
New hormone-free sensor/data based approaches to family planing are gaining popularity because of this.
And the efficacy is still too low compared to condoms/IUDs/vasectomy/vasalgel, although the efficacy would also roughly match that of female hormonal birth control.
Hopefully RISUG/vasalgel procedures prove safe, effective, and cheap and we can have that as an option soon.
If you look at the studies, those that use progesterone and testosterone will give 2-4x the dose used for women for progesterone and testosterone dosages that are on the lighter side of what a bodybuilder could use if they were doping.
In addition, many men understand quite well the effects that birth control pills have on the women they care about. If there were a male alternative, many of them would happily try it.
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
[0]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27680324/