- cross-posted to:
- health
- cross-posted to:
- health
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Kinda hard to make male contraceptives. Women are naturally infertile for most of the time not spent actively ovulating. They are permanently infertile during pregnancy, real or synthetic. But men? We’re always churning out swimmers. When that process stops, something has gone very wrong.
So, artificially induce a naturally occurring phenomenon vs artificially terminate a constant mechanism.
…in mice, after massive, cancer-causing doses, probably.
I’m tired of hearing about this shit. Put it to market or stop talking about it.
Yeah just push it out to public. Just like they did with women’s contraceptives.
I have a different solution, its called being a transbian :3
How so? Unless you remove testicles, or your partner is also a trans person, you’re still 100% able to have offspring together
I was being more silly than serious :3
Easier to target one egg cell than millions of sperm germ cells.
Sure. But the demand is here on both sides, not just one.
Male contraceptives allow men to have reproductive agency beyond condoms and vasectomy, and they can be used in couples where women prefer not to use non-barrier contraception for health reasons or personal reservations.
My situation right here. Condoms suck, vasectomy is too much, and birth control isn’t on the table. Please give me a pill already.
This kind of news is an annual event at this point.
I just use my personality. Seems simpler.
Celibacy makes this research a moot point.
The new stuff is reversible
I thought it was your looks?
Recently, the smell.
The Complete Package.
In my case it is even easier. I’m short, so I am invisible to women.
Not if you’re also loooong.
Ooo that’s rare.
Last I heard there were some of these contraceptives moving into clinical trials, the ones with gel in the vas deferens,
Anyway it is irrelevant for regular people, because it isn’t available and probably won’t be within 5 to 10 years if lucky. Maybe it would be relevant if it had a chance of being available in 1 to 2 years , even then who knows how expensive it would be or how long it would take to be accessible, as in a lot of doctors doing it.
That’s great but I’ve been seeing articles like this for decades so I’ll believe it when there’s an actual working product you can actually get
Scientists at Cornell University
may be
closing in
Right? Im scheduled for a vasectomy in a month, this ain’t stopping me.
One of the best moves I made.
After my partner and I had agreed no more kids…it was down to the doc to get the chop. Very easy, keyhole surgery; I feeling 90% by the next day, 100% the following day. 2.5 days of discomfort for years of stress free times…worth it!
Never regretted it myself, but technically quite a good chance of reversibility (85+%) and 95+% chance of viable artificial insemination if things change.
Also minimal, short lived discomfort.
It’s considered permanent though. Shouldn’t go ahead under view it can be reversed. Saying that, the piece of mind it brings is wonderful.
Also, compare those to the near certain side effects of female contraception, which is just taken as the natural state of affairs.
Valid, those are pretty good odds though, mind you I looked it up decades ago and the reversal was a pretty involved piece of expensive microsurgery.
Best $50 I’ve ever spent. Quick procedure, quick recovery with an excuse to not do anything for a couple days.
50$??? Where do you live? Can I live there?
Midwest here. Just had the procedure about two weeks ago (recovery slightly slower than the commenter above, but not by much). They said something like $500 without insurance which honestly wasn’t even that bad. After insurance it was $110. One consultation of “you sure big dawg?” Then the procedure about 4 weeks later, which took maybe 20-30 minutes and I was just chatting away with some Valium in my system. Very easy.
You can also just be brown and walk in front of ICE. They have a history of forced sterilizing
Jesus, you’re not making that up. I think that may ruin my night.
That shit is copay. Can’t even get a cat neutered for $50.
Midwest US, but it’s really down to the insurance policy. This particular procedure was 100% covered other than copay. Copay was usually $50, but for specialties it was $75. If you have insurance, definitely check your policy. A lot of times vasectomy is explicitly called out.
Testosterone is a fairly effective male contraceptive agent, but most people can’t get over the side effect of ball shrinkage.
Hmm. And what “debuffs” (for a lack of a better term, lol) can a male experience from this side effect?
They’re progressing slowly, but it’s obvious that they don’t want a bad launch so they’re all waiting until they have something that works and is safe enough and safety only comes from having people take it then see if it works after being reversed or ended years later.
Didn’t they figure that out with Vasalgel?
Cool. More options for reproductive agency are always welcome.
To achieve this, scientists used JQ1, a small molecule inhibitor originally developed to study cancer and inflammatory diseases. While JQ1 is not suitable as a treatment due to neurological side effects, it is known to interfere with a stage of meiosis called prophase 1.
While JQ1 is not suitable as a treatment due to neurological side effects
That doesn’t sound very safe.
Bruh the cancer lab (prostate cancer out of all things) I worked in as an undergrad was studying JQ1. Couldn’t believe I’d ever hear this drug name again. Really hope this can go somewhere, reversible contraceptive sounds exciting
You still in the field or did you go another way?
I’m back in cancer research for my current job again. But not in prostate… and more importantly, I’m on the computational side of things instead of experimental now
Also as to the topic… there were a few people in my undergrad lab who were actively studying JQ1 (back in 2017-18), but I’ve never heard much about the drug after I left. Thanks to you I finally found out why I never heard about it again (neurological side effects) so
So the substance isn’t a possible treatment for cancer because of neurological side effects… and their next step is “let’s sell it to guys who aren’t able to use condoms”?
I think the idea is that this particular drug isn’t suitable as birth control, but having identified that this mechanism/biological pathway can work for birth control, they can look for a less toxic compound to achieve the same effect.
If I read it correctly it’s double win for guys who have cancer and don’t want to reproduce.
sounds that way to me. I think the thing like always is the title. its something they noticed and now a track to find something that does a similar type of mechanism without the bad side effects.
Yes, I know some of these words and concur.
There was this gel that got injected into the tube connecting the balls to the urethra(vas deferens?). It would destroy the sperms as it went through and you where basically sterile. To reverse they injected you again with something and it would become a liquid and you ended up busting it out in a few ejaculations. It’s been stuck in early human trials for a decade.
This is the one my husband has been keeping a close eye on for years. Shame it hasn’t moved much recently.
I’ve giving up and just saving for a vasectomy now. Whatever it costs is still cheaper than a kid
Make sure you do your follow up exams! Don’t want a kid-shaped surprise after going through the hoops to get a vasectomy lol
100% this.
I know of a few people that this happened to…make sure you are testing 0% sperm count before going “hats off”
Oh absolutely. These kids gonna eat me out of house and home. I ain’t trusting it until after I’ve been given the all clear and still pulling out just in case
Even if it’s zero percent at the test, does that mean all future ejaculations will be 0%?
It cost me a $50 copay with insurance (US), maybe $75 because “specialist” I don’t remember. Without insurance idk the cost, but I’d guess under $500.
Jesus, I read about that technique in a science magazine in the 90s.
Summary:
Scientists at Cornell University may be closing in on the long-sought “holy grail” of male contraception: a safe, reversible, nonhormonal method that completely halts sperm production. In a breakthrough mouse study, researchers used a compound called JQ1 to temporarily shut down meiosis—the critical process that produces sperm—without causing lasting harm. After treatment stopped, sperm production bounced back, fertility returned, and the animals produced healthy offspring.
ah so it’s one of those articles whose title is missing “in mice”
The “in mice” part is actually really exciting to me because male pet mice have to be kept solitary to prevent pregnancies and aggression with other males, but they still have social needs. It would be amazing if they could be kept with females full-time with no pregnancy risk.
Would also be nice to keep mixed-mischiefs of rats since their personalities and behaviors are somewhat sexually divergent. You could have a couple busy girls and a couple cuddly boys without having to take turns free roaming.
And I question how viable it is given this:
To achieve this, scientists used JQ1, a small molecule inhibitor originally developed to study cancer and inflammatory diseases. While JQ1 is not suitable as a treatment due to neurological side effects, it is known to interfere with a stage of meiosis called prophase 1. This allowed researchers to demonstrate, for the first time, that targeting meiosis can safely and reversibly shut down sperm production.
It sounds like calling the treatment “safe” might be a bit of a stretch.
I think they meant “safe” with regard to reproductive ability. It sounds like they’re happy with targeting meiosis, not with using JQ1 specifically.
Aren’t pretty much all of these medical discoveries from mice?
It’s an early step. Good chance it doesn’t work well in humans, and many side effects can’t be discovered until human trials either.
We need this just because Republicans would never tell a straight white man what to do with his body…
And any birth control is better than none, for the periods we can’t have all methods.
Are the republicans against the draft and the forced labour prison system? Quite a few straight white men there
Maybe they won’t do that but will certainly restrict access by any means necessary for everyone except the rich.
While JQ1 is not suitable as a treatment due to neurological side effects, it is known to interfere with a stage of meiosis called prophase 1. This allowed researchers to demonstrate, for the first time, that targeting meiosis can safely and reversibly shut down sperm production.
If developed for human use, this type of male contraceptive could be delivered as an injection given every three months or possibly as a patch to maintain effectiveness, Cohen said.
