Hey guys, picture this: you wake up in the morning for your daily routine. You jump in the shower, lather up, and rinse off. You hop out of the shower, throw on a towel and head over to the sink. Shave, brush your teeth and finally, grab that small blue packet and take your daily birth control pill.
Wait, hold the phone. Male birth control pill? Yep. Believe it or not, birth control options for men are on a steep rise.
According to an article from The Telegraph: World News, Israeli scientists have created the first successful oral contraceptive for males. This new pill is completely hormone-free and acts by stripping sperm of the calcium that is required for a woman to conceive. What’s even better? The pill only needs to be taken every three months.
Israel isn’t the only place that is quickly developing male birth control options. According to The Independent, Chinese scientists have developed a birth control injection for men. It is 99% effective, lasts 10 years and is completely reversible.
So with all of these new and exciting birth control methods becoming available in other countries, why aren’t American scientists working towards new, innovative male birth control? When is the pill going to be available for us guys in the U.S.?
Unfortunately, it looks like it will be a long time before male birth control is widely available in the US. Our country is stuck on the antiquated idea that contraceptive pills are the female’s responsibility. To be fair, contraception has long been the province of women. Still, many pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as their consumers, don’t want this attitude to change. Most long-term relationships rely on a birth control pill, and this has perpetuated America’s illusion that birth control is the woman’s responsibility.
What’s worse, men are refusing the concept of a male contraceptive. Men don’t want that responsibility, and many women are reluctant as well. Some of these hesitant views are noted in the earlier Telegraph article: “A big drawback against men being in control of fertility is the fear they would forget to take a pill…Polls have repeatedly shown wives and partners do not trust their men to remember to pop a pill every day.”
One of the most blatantly sexist, and unfortunately most common, arguments is that men are horny and can’t get pregnant, so they don’t care.
Unfortunately, until men start sharing the responsibility for contraceptives, there will be little defense against these kind of irrational thoughts.
Men, it’s time to man up. Until we start facing these issues head-on, it looks like our lovely ladies are going to be stuck with the pill for a long time. So be proactive! Talk to your woman about her birth control. Offer to split the cost. Do something to end the perpetual idea that birth control is solely the woman’s responsibility because the male contraceptive pill might be right around the corner.
