Male birth control pills touted by local experts

[kfrost06]

Birth control pills may not be just for women anymore, new research findings show.

A study compiled by two Torrance-area scientists - a married couple who head one of only two government-funded research centers in the United States for male contraceptives - found that hormone pills that block sperm production in men are safe and reversible.

"There is more of an awareness that the responsibility in family planning should be a shared responsibility between two partners," said Dr. Ron Swerdloff, a leading expert on male fertility and health issues at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.

Swerdloff and his wife, Dr. Christina Chang, co-authored a report that will appear in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism showing that a combination of testosterone and progestin are about 97 percent effective in preventing pregnancy.

The local researchers based their findings on clinical trials and studies conducted across the globe, part of a burgeoning movement to expand contraceptive options for men.

The hormone combination that proved most successful halts testosterone production in the testicles, but fakes the body into believing that testosterone levels are the same, according to the study. The progestin, typically a female hormone, speeds the process and improves the effectiveness of the drug, research shows.

The hormones can be taken in daily pill form or periodic injections that last longer, much the same as birth control pills that prevent egg production in women.

The form that male birth control hormones take - and whether they ever even make it onto the commercial market - depends largely on pharmaceutical companies, said Swerdloff, chief of endocrinology at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and director of the Male Contraceptive Clinical Trial Network Center near Torrance.

"The limitation at this time is to find pharmaceutical sponsors that are willing to do the final development," he said. "The problem is that when you develop medications that are given to healthy people for the purpose of preventing something like unwanted conception, there is an appropriate high degree of regulatory requirement to show safety and efficacy."

So far, drug companies have been unwilling to invest the time and money to seek regulatory approval from the Federal Drug Administration. Birth control pills are available only to men who participate in clinical trials, said the researchers, who are funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Wang and Berdloff, however, hope that male contraception can make a difference beyond the borders of the United States. The two met while serving on a committee at the World Health Organization to explore more accessible birth control options for men in developing countries.

"This is an area we think is very important, particularly at this time as we read in the papers about problems of imbalance between resources and population," Berdloff said. "We're beginning to realize that we're running out of many commodities."

Like female birth control, the male contraceptives don't prevent sexually transmitted disease. But they have proven as effective as female pills in preventing pregnancy, according to the study.

The hormones are also not permanent; men who stop taking them will eventually produce sperm again after a short lag time, the study showed.

As far as side effects, men don't experience the weight gain and mood swings associated with some female birth control. The only perceivable side effect has been an increase in acne in some men, Berdloff said.

[Kratos]

I wonder if anyone on this board would get a script for testosterone birth control. Not take the progestin. Do a nice test cycle.

Sorry govmt. isn't going to let you have male birth control.