Alternative Health Blog
Men Get a Shot at Birth Control
The holy grail of birth control is a pill that does for men what The Pill does for women, with no side effects. That goal remains elusive, according to The Week, but Chinese scientists say they may have finally developed a highly effective male contraceptive method, based, surprisingly enough, on monthly testosterone shots. In a new study of 1,000 sexually active men, scientists from the national Research Institute for Family Planning in Beijing found that the testosterone shots greatly reduced the average male's sperm count in about 99 percent of the cases, making them effectively infertile.
Over a given year, the incidence of a man on testosterone shots getting a woman pregnant was about 1 percent. That compared to 0.3 percent for the pill and 2 percent for condoms. "If a male contraceptive like this became available, it would give people another choice," Lawrence Shaw of the British Fertility Society tells BBCnews.com. "At the moment, the onus is on the woman." Chinese researchers said most men became fertile again about six months after discontinuing the shots, which disrupt the normal balance of hormones necessary for sperm production. The main side effect of the shots was a change in the sex drive, with most of the men becoming more amorous, not less. May you always be blessed with good health.