Male
birth control offers men option on fatherhood
By
Robin Grodin
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
In
the not to distant future a male birth
control contraceptive could be available
to any male who wants it.
Currently,
all that is available to men who wish
to control their options against future
fatherhood are condoms, which cause sensation
loss, or a vasectomy, which is almost
always irreversible. In contrast, women
have many options including the birth
control pill, the morning after pill,
a diaphragm and a new patch.
Why
the imbalance between the sexes? In order
to control a woman's reproductive capabilities
the contraceptive must control the release
of one egg per month. A man's reproductive
capabilities are much harder to control
since they release thousands of sperm
every few seconds.
"Let
the men take on some of the responsibility
for a change," said CSULB studentDrue
Wawrzynski. "Women shouldn't have
to carry all of the responsibility for
birth control."
Female
birth control has been available since
the 1960s so if male birth control becomes
available at the anticipated date of 2010
then female birth control would have been
available for roughly 50 years more.
Studies
show that more than one-third of all contraception
use is male oriented and only 10 percent
in couples who are married.
"I
would be relieved to know that the fate
of my future as a parent is in my own
hands for once," CSULB student Sean
Guerin said. "A male contraceptive
would be great just because sex with a
condom is never as good as sex without
a condom."
The
various types of male contraception are
still in the trial testing phase. There
are studies being conducted, like the
one at the University of Washington, that
control a hormone called progestin that
affects the pituitary gland in the male
brain. What this does is cut back on the
type of hormones that tell the testes
to create sperm.
A
drawback is the lack of testosterone that
the male will then produce. This affects
the male libido and muscle mass. Countermeasures
such as a testosterone cream and testosterone
injections have been also included in
testing of the contraceptives.
Another
route of male contraception has nothing
to do with male hormones. It involves
a type of protein called eppin. This protein
acts as a vaccination. This type of male
contraception is not as advanced as hormonal
studies, but the plus side is that it
does not affect the testosterone in men.
It
will be at least five years until any
form of male contraception will be legally
distributed in the United States, but
when it is available it would be great
so "the burden doesn't always rest
on the women," said Larry Harvey,
the Clinical Coordinator at the on-campus
health center. But Harvey does caution,
"The possibility for pregnancy will
still be real."
