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1

I know plenty of women who don't want to shove hormones in their bodies every day. Some take them any way, having calculated that the risk of pregnancy outweighs the negative effects. But why would a man risk cancer to avoid getting someone else pregnant?

Posted by our bodies ourselves | September 26, 2007 10:27 AM
2

I've very much wanted male contraception for a very long time. What I don't want, and what a great many men probably don't want, is to be a beta tester for the first approved male birthcontrol pills. It isn't quite fair to say that it is the same as women taking a pill, a ring, or a three month shot. It is more accurate to say that it is just like your mother (maybe even your grand mother if you are young enough) taking the pill. So yeah, I think it is great that research is being done on this, I'd be thrilled if we'd hand the defense department budget over to researchers to perfect it but I'll be sticking to condoms. I hope they have all the bugs worked out in time for my kids to use it.

Posted by mason | September 26, 2007 10:29 AM
3

@1,

I don't know, maybe to avoid 18 years of child support?

Posted by keshmeshi | September 26, 2007 10:33 AM
4

Why wouldn't a man with any sense want reliable male contraception, so long as side effects weren't an issue? Granted, I have less at stake than my partner would, but it's still not consequence-free - guys don't like paying child support. I'd honestly prefer not to have to put my faith in the efforts of whatever woman I'm having sex with.

Once a pill/shot is on the market that won't give me cancer or make me grow huge man-boobies, put me down for it.

@1 - there are nonhormonal options for women as well, such as the copper IUD.

Posted by tsm | September 26, 2007 10:34 AM
5

Uh, while I have never been decapitated, I can state from experience that a vasectomy is waaaaaay more sophisticated than decapitation.

Posted by bill | September 26, 2007 10:36 AM
6

my guess if that long-term partnered men would be the most likely candidates for this kind of b.c., once it's perfected. swingin' singles--not so much.

Posted by ellarosa | September 26, 2007 10:40 AM
7

At the end of the day, none of these new male contraceptives will prevent STIs.

You still need a plastic bag for that.

Posted by Toby | September 26, 2007 10:43 AM
8

#1 -- I'd rather pay child support than risk cancer.
#4 -- IUD's may be safe now, but a lot of women died from wearing them, about ten years after they were introduced in the US.

Posted by our bodies ourselves | September 26, 2007 10:47 AM
9

I'm pretty sure we ran some trials of male contraceptives at the UW recently.

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 26, 2007 11:51 AM
10

About two years ago my girlfriend told me she was pregnant. We've been dating for several years, and she has religiously taken birth control. But when they say that birth control is 98% effective or whatever, there is still a risk.

So we found ourselves in the incredibly sad position of having to weigh the reality of a baby with the fact that we were both young, without high paying jobs, with debt and no insurance. So we went to planned parenthood and had an abortion.

I can't tell you how sick that makes you feel. I am pro choice, and I am fortunate that this happened at a time in our country where we as a couple had the freedom to make a choice about whether or not to start a family, but it made me sick to my stomach and I feel pretty guilty about the whole thing.

That said, I am also an only child. I am an only child who wasn't supposed to be, as my mother suffered some kind of complication from an IUD that malfunctioned (I never got the full story from her, as I don't think she liked to talk about it).

So. I kind of feel like some parts of my life are utterly defined by birth control and its downfalls.

As a male, I would give anything to have a safe, reliable male contraceptive that would have gone a long way towards keeping my girlfriend and I from having to make that terrible choice.

But I do know that one day I would like to have a family. When I am financially able to properly support children.

So while it is easy to stereotype men as being uncaring about their reproductive rights, the truth is that family planning decisions are the equal, shared responsibility of both parties. Abortion is a physical procedure, but the physical affects subside within a few days, but the emotional affects are much more severe, and you don't need a uterus to feel like you've lost part of yourself.

Male contraception needs to happen, and it needs to be safe. And nobody should ridicule a man for not jumping into some trial drug, because after all it's his family, and his future, that is at stake, not yours.

Posted by aborted dad | September 26, 2007 12:06 PM
11

clarification: the IUD malfunction didn't result in her becoming pregnant w/ me, rather the doctors said that due to the issue caused by the IUD, she wasn't supposed to be able to bear children when she wanted to. So her having me was against all medical odds.

Posted by aborted dad | September 26, 2007 12:10 PM
12

@5 testify brother--as long as you're sure you don't want to have any, or are done having the ones you're going to have, vasectomy is the way to go. All the fun, and none of the consequences (well, except for the pesky risk of STDs). And, once my wife got off the pill, she was healthier and happier. Male or female, taking powerful hormones every day is not a free lunch.

Posted by Westside forever | September 26, 2007 12:49 PM
13

@10: Thank you.

Posted by mookie | September 26, 2007 1:09 PM
14

After my vaesectomy, I felt like I had been kicked in the nuts very very hard.

Posted by ow my balls | September 26, 2007 1:18 PM
15

What's really annoying about this is that polls have shown consistently for decades that a majority of men want male birth control for themselves.


(And given that one poll showed 42% of American women were willing to lie about birth control in order to get pregnant, you'd think this would be a self-defense issue for Men.)


Yet despite the fact that men clearly *do* want options, we have a weird cultural belief that men don't want birth control. Many people absurdly believe that all men would find it somehow threatening to their virility.


I'm frankly kind of stunned that most people don't want to be reversibly sterile by default, turning their reproductive potential fully on when they desire a child. Having children only when you choose to and never risking an unwanted pregnancy at an inopportune time seems like an obvious desire to me.

Posted by IdahoEv | September 26, 2007 2:12 PM
16

I would gladly be a guinea pig for male birth control. I barely want kids at any point in my life, so I don't mind a risk of sterility. And I'll probably just pick up cancer some other more boring and less noble way anyway.

Posted by Chris in Tampa | September 26, 2007 2:52 PM

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