Second: I'll refer to terms and arguments that have been explained previously under Education in this post.
Third: Woohoo!
Summary
There is a biochemist in Israel, Prof Haim Breitbart, who says that he has come up with a substance that stops sperm from being effective. It blocks a biomechanical process that allows the sperm to survive. He is currently working with mice, and has found two different doses of the chemical to be effective in creating sterility in mice for one month and three months. He has come up with both a pill and an injection, although the pill has earned the nickname the "Bright Pill" as a reference to Dr. Breitbart's name. He says that a human version could be available in as little as 5 years.
What's very promising and important is that it doesn't appear to lead to behavioural changes in mice, and they still have a sex drive and are sociable. One of the complaints about female oral contraceptives is that they are hormonal, therefore they affect many different parts of the body and can change mood, weight, instances of cancers, and drastically increase the risk of blood clots. Most women experience only minor side effects and seem willing to put up with them. However, this new male pill would not be hormonal, therefore the only affected cells would be sperm, causing much fewer and less varied side effects.
Ways in which it can Help
I'm a strong believer in doubling up protection. Any single method of contraception has its own failure rate, but these failure rates become practically non-existent when two methods are used together. To do some math, if oral contraceptives have a typical use failure rate of 8%, and condoms have a typical use failure rate of 12%, then things start to get scary. However, if you combine birth control and condoms together, you have a typical use failure rate of 0.0096%, or 0.96/100 women getting pregnant over the course of a year. That's right, not even a full woman getting pregnant out of a 100 (I love non-sense fractions).
If you have a male option for contraception besides condoms, this may allow both partners to be (reversibly) sterile, which drops the pregnancy rate down to almost nothing. This doubling up of protection would be great for couples that are monogamous and have already been tested for STIs.
Not to mention, if a woman has to take a pill once every day, there are going to be days when it won't be taken on time or she might forget. I'm sure this has been the cause of more than one panicked woman watching the days tick by on the calender. Although there are alternatives, such as Depo provera, a shot given once every three months, many women find the side effects to be much greater with the higher levels of hormones. A pill or shot that is taken once every three months with little to no side effects would reduce the potential for the product to be incorrectly used, meaning it would have a lower "typical use" failure rate.
I'm also sure that there are some males that are paranoid enough when it comes to contraception that they would gladly take on the role of contraceptive-pill-taker. And let's face it, when it comes to contraception, being a little paranoid maybe isn't such a bad thing.
However, it's Not a Miracle Pill
Let's all remember though that this pill is still in the works and is not available yet. Although it doesn't have any big side effects in mice, humans are a whole other species, and we can't predict 100% what side effects the pill might have. Although mice trials are promising, we still don't know how effective the Bright Pill will be.
I also question how accessible this pill might be to teenagers because new medications are usually more expensive, and since there are no other benefits of the Bright Pill besides sterility, guys wouldn't be able to use the excuse "it's for my acne" or "it's to lessen my cramps" in order to get their parents to pay for it. They would have to be honest and say that they were, or were at least considering becoming, sexually active. Although parents tend to be more forgiving with the sexual activity of boys, there are still parents out there that would feel it was morally wrong to let their teenage sons go on the Bright Pill.
Let's also remember that it would NOT protect either partner against STIs. STIs are still a huge health problem in our society, and it's important not to take the Bright Pill as a new way for men to get frisky with multiple women and not have to worry. The Bright Pill would not be an excuse to be lazy or indifferent about condom use. STI testing and condom use still need to remain a central focus in sexual health conversations, especially with youth and those who take part in high risk sexual behaviours.
In Conclusion
I'm super excited. Well, more like a controlled and cautionary excitement, but let's face it - I'm still psyched! People have been asking for this for ages, and science might actually deliver it in time for my (potential) children's generation.
I'm a believer in having as many options as possible available so that each couple (or threesome, or foursome, etc) can choose the forms of protection and contraception that are right for them. Having more options that are male-centric can help to relieve some women from the pains of the side effects of birth control pills.
Although I have a lot of reservations about the Bright Pill, I am hopeful that it will be able to live up to the hype.
In love and lust,
Lilith
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