Male birth control has been a popular topic of late as a new male birth control pill called TDI-11861 was introduced in February of 2023. This new pill lowers the mobility of sperm and renders them unable to fertilize an egg. This pill will allow for male fertility to be chosen day-to-day, as full fertility will return 24 hours after the pill has been taken, and has shown success in preventing conception in mice. There have been a variety of responses to this relatively new development on and off social media, spanning from individuals being excited for this new option, to others saying they will never take the pill. These reactions are warranted, but it’s 2023 and begs the question of why it has taken this long for pregnancy prevention to be both a male and female issue.
Currently there are two options for male birth control: condoms and vasectomies. According to a Daily News article by Dr. Norbert Herzog and Dr. David Niese, condoms do advertise that they are 98% effective when used correctly, but accounting for human error the actual effectiveness is 87%. Conventionally, vasectomies are seen as only for older men as the rate of successful reversals ranges from 60% to 95% and most men don’t want to risk their future fertility — even though long term use of female hormonal birth control has been shown to decrease female fertility.
So if women can only have one pregnancy every ten months and men can potentially impregnate over 280 women in that same time frame, why does pregnancy prevention remain mainly a female burden?
There is a definite cultural component to this issue that is largely ignored. In 1968 a blood pressure medication, phenoxybenzamine, was found to cause men to stop ejaculating, not preventing orgasm but rather ensuring that nothing would “come out” when an orgasm occurred. While this had the potential to become a safe male birth control, it never made it to mass testing or distribution; users found the idea of an “invisible orgasm distinctly unappealing,” and that the “‘clean-sheets’ pill was seen as emasculating,” according to Zaria Gorvett, BBC journalist. The method lost funding and disappeared.
This same process has happened to multiple hormonal male birth controls, where the side effects of acne, mood swings, and weight gain have disqualified it from future use. While the standards for medication safety have increased over time, female birth control is still mass produced with these same symptoms. More dangerous side effects such as blood clotting and death are still commonly accepted possible consequences of female birth control. Therefore not only do females often deal with the brunt of contraception physically and emotionally, but also financially, all because some men are “worried about the effect on their performance, how they feel about sex,” as Gorvett said.
The misconception about the lack of male birth control being a scientific issue is absolutely untrue, yet is constantly pushed in the media. The reason why there are no options for male birth control outside of condoms and vasectomies is not because science doesn’t have a solution. It’s because of society and the double standards around birth control. So, WTF dudes! Let’s make sure this new male birth control doesn’t join the graveyard of others buried by the patriarchy.