Every day, millions of sperm swim up vaginal canals in search of
an egg to inseminate, only to discover that they’ve been
duped ““ the woman is on the pill.
But it’s time for a change. Women have borne the
responsibility of birth control for far too long. It’s time
for sperm to find their own way to befuddle the eggs ““
it’s time for male birth control.
I don’t mean a vasectomy, which is a bit harsh, or
condoms, which usually get the job done but can still be a
nuisance. I mean a safe and easy way, something along the lines of
a male contraceptive pill.
Men need to know that pregnancy, childbirth and birth control
are not women’s issues; they apply to society as a whole. A
male contraceptive would be a step toward changing the existing
attitude.
Spermatech, a biotech company in Norway, is currently working on
a non-hormonal method of rendering sperm temporarily useless.
“Spermatech has identified … the function of a protein
in sperms that regulate the sperm’s ability to move or swim.
By deactivating this protein, the sperms will not be able to reach
and penetrate the eggs,” said Eirik Næss-Ulseth, the CEO
of Spermatech, in an e-mail.
This isn’t the only method people have developed to
temporarily suppress male fertility.
But Spermatech, along with Professor George Witman of the
University of Massachusetts Medical School (who worked to discover
this protein), believes that the other options that may be
available to men will have “severe side effects”
because they rely on hormonal or immunological methods that
suppress sperm in the testes.
The University of Massachusetts has a deal with Spermatech to
continue to research at an industrial level.
In fact, most hormonal contraceptives available to women have a
long list of side effects. Certain hormonal contraceptives, such as
the Depo-Provera shot, may cause women to lose their period
altogether and not get it back for years.
And women shouldn’t use the shot for more than two years
unless they absolutely have to: It causes bone thinning, and
doctors don’t know if that lost bone mass is ever fully
regained. Unfortunately, mainly poor and low-income women use this
shot.
The birth control pill also has a long list of side effects,
including mood swings, anxiety and depression, as well as an
increased risk of heart disease. Because the pill is so commonly
prescribed, people rarely think about these side effects.
Hormonal birth control just hasn’t been around for that
long. Nobody really knows about the long-term side effects. There
are theories that it may be linked to breast cancer or other
negative side effects, but we simply don’t know.
These risks create an imperative for a form of male
contraception with minimal side effects.
First of all, women shouldn’t have to be the only ones
responsible for birth control. Second, women shouldn’t have
to deal with the side effects associated with hormonal birth
control, especially if the option for men has fewer side
effects.
If Spermatech is successful, this should be the case.
“This protein works on sperm, but nothing else,” said
Witman. “There shouldn’t be any negative side effects
because this protein doesn’t exist anywhere else in the
body.”
I asked some UCLA students what they thought about the prospect.
Most men said they’d have no problem taking it, and most
women said they thought it was a good idea. But a few remained
apprehensive.
“You can’t count on men to put the seat down after
they pee, much less trust them with birth control,”
third-year history student Adrienne Merrick said.
Other women also expressed doubts about trust.
But, like the female pill, this product wouldn’t protect
against STDs or HIV. So unless you know the person well and can
trust that they’ve been tested, you shouldn’t be
relying on this form of birth control anyway.
Others worried about how much men would care.
“I can see how a male would be less responsible with
taking the pill every day, since if they get a girl pregnant it may
not directly affect them,” third-year history student Meghan
Cordeiro said.
While this is a legitimate worry, in my experience men do
realize that getting a girl pregnant directly affects them,
especially since the child can be genetically traced to them.
Chris Sides, a fourth-year technology and information sciences
student at Pennsylvania State University, had a harsher
opinion.
“I think the feminists came up with it, just because they
are jealous and want to suppress the male penis because they feel
like it has power over them,” Sides said.
I don’t understand how male birth control would suppress
the male penis, unless female birth control is seen as a
suppression of the vagina.
It might take time for people to be able to treat the issue
seriously.
“The idea of a male birth control is something that
I’m sure most people find somehow amusing,” said
Valerie Edmon, fifth-year anthropology student at UCLA.
Amusing or not, there’s a market for it: A recent poll in
Europe and Australia showed 75 percent of men would be willing to
try a male contraceptive pill. This product would be extremely
useful in places such as the U.S., where about half of all
pregnancies are unintended and half of those end in abortion.
“Right now, women in most relationships are bearing the
entire burden of birth control. Many couples would like to have the
option of having something to use in the male,” Witman
said.
This product has the potential to change gender dynamics.
At the moment, birth control is a women’s issue and men
play a minor role.
But if responsibility is shared between the sexes and men are
held equally accountable for every aspect of the reproductive
process, the possibility for the future of gender roles holds
exciting prospects.
While birth control shouldn’t be amusing, if you think
the idea of sperm with useless tails evokes humorous images, e-mail
Loewenstein at lloewenstein@media.ucla.edu.