It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: male birth control is on the way, and
it’s headed to human trials next year!
Hey guys, Tara here for Dnews - and it seems like we’ve been hearing about the idea of
male birth control for years now.
I hadn’t heard anything about it for a while, so I was kinda starting to assume it was just
a pipe dream - but apparently, research is still underway, and if all goes as planned
- it’ll be entering human trials as soon as next year!
This particular drug, is called Vasalgel - and it’s not like any birth control pill you’ve
seen before.
It’s actually not a pill at all - it’s a nonhormonal gel, that doctors inject into
the vas deferens, which is the tube that sperm swims through.
In that regard, it works exactly like a vasectomy - but instead of physically cutting the vas
deferens, they just plug it up with this gel.
It’s less invasive and way more reversible than a vasectomy, and it’s also long-acting,
meaning once the gel is in there - it stays there for years, until you decide you don’t
want it anymore, at which point doctors can flush it out with another injection.
They’ve been doing rabbit studies on this drug for over a year now, with successful
results - and they’re currently in the process of testing it on baboons.
So far, things are lookin’ good!
Three male baboons have now been on the drug for 6 months, with plenty of opportunities
to mate - and no pregnancies thus far.
They also just started a new study, which’ll involve 8 additional baboons, each of whom
will have access to fertile females for a period of 3-6 months.
The final step in the process, which begins next month - is to flush the drug out, and
make sure the reversal actually works.
By the end of 2014, they should have a lot more information on the effectiveness of Vasalgel
- but if all goes according to plan, they’ll be starting clinical trials with humans next
year, with the ultimate goal of having it on the market and available, as early as 2016.
I gotta say - as overjoyed as I am about the prospect of male birth control, I do wonder
why it’s taken so long to develop something like this.
But hey - who am I to complain?
At this point, I’m just happy somebody’s workin on it.
Now - switching gears for a second, I wanna remind everyone out there watching this, that
I host another another show here on the TestTube network - aptly titled TestTube.
It’s a lot like Dnews - but more focused on current events; however there is still
some science stuff in there, like this episode Trace hosted about what the phrase “autism
spectrum” actually means.
You can find that, along with many other episodes, over at youtube.com/testtubenetwork.
And in the meantime, if you guys have any questions, comments, anything you wanna say
about this episode - let us know in the comments below.
Otherwise, thanks for watching!