The new male contraceptive - seriously!?!?

[SundialShadow]

Are they trying to set it up for failure?

FFS. They had one job - invent a male concraceptive that men will take and it will work.

Failed at the 2nd hurdle.

For those that don't know, the method of erm... use is an injection in the balls. A needle will have to pearse the sack. How can this not go well I wonder?

"Hello darling, please let me stick this needle in your twin plums there"
"Hold still like a good man"
"Oh do stop screaming"
"At least pull your trousers up before you bolt off down the road"

I guess we are on the pill / condom / cap / pretending to have our periods for another decade at least.

In fairness, there's a whole of difference between an impromptu survey of a few blokes in front of all their works colleagues and a constructive discussion about contraceptive choices between partners in private.

I don't speak for DP but I am pretty sure he would be happy to consider this as among the array of choices but if someone's making office banter over the desk partition asking 'do you fancy a needle in the nutsack?' he wouldnt open up a serious discussion about our family planning arrangements in the interests of challenging attitudes.

Oh please a needle near their balls is going to terrify all men to the point none would consider this? Thankfully my DH isn't like this, but FFS try childbirth if one moment of a pinchy pain (which is going to numb the area for the rest of the procedure) is too much to handle. I think your expectations of men are set very low.

Unfortunately, what we currently have is going to be seen as the "acceptable status quo" so any new method is going to have to seem better to the person undergoing it than just allowing things to continue as-is.

I dont think there are many men who would see a needle to the jewels as being better for them than "just getting the woman to keep doing what shes doing even if she nags for a bit", especially when theyll need to have it every 2 years - theres already a lot of shying away from the needle for a vasectomy and they only need to do that once.

I can see interest from f*ckboys who want to sleep around and be sure there wont be any kids but those are exactly the people you want to be sure and use a condom with!

I dont think there are many men who would see a needle to the jewels as being better for them than "just getting the woman to keep doing what shes doing even if she nags for a bit", especially when theyll need to have it every 2 years - theres already a lot of shying away from the needle for a vasectomy and they only need to do that once.

Again a very low opinion of men in a long term loving relationship who just maybe might see it as their time to step up after their other half has had years of various contraceptives and possible childbirth etc.

I guess you think men who are willing to take a fairer approach are like hens teeth, despite the fact there's a few already on this thread who've said they'd give it a go.

Even though I did it myself, I don't think vasectomies are completely comparable, I wouldn't entertain the idea of permenant sterilisation either. I dare say that's a factor behind some if not a lot of refusals.

I think there's plenty of blokes who'd rather have a needle in the nutsack, than end up with a human being they don't want to support.

I imagine many men would welcome this.

It's a bit silly to assume an injection in the testicles would put so many off.

I don't really get why this is such an issue for you that they're starting to increase choices for men as well as couples- other than you being weirdly precious and a bit immature about testicles.

Oh goodddeee - projection. I can project too.
I don't get why you feel the need to say that I am exhibiting a perceived preciousness and immaturity about testes.

I don't get why you feel the need to defend an option for LARC that will be untenible and unfeasible for a lot of men. Women already have options that make them feel sick, pained, hormonal etc. Giving similiary challanging options to men is not going to make the case for men to rush to these alternative options.

Why not go down the path of coming up with a solution that is usable for men as well as vastly improving those that are available to women? You would not buy a laptop that made you moody, teary, hurt you or stabbed you in the balls once every two years. Why are we happy that these are our only LARC options?

But the poor dears couldn't handle the mood swings, acne and weight gain that was associated with hormone based so every single one was shelved and they went back tot he drawing board.

Yes, and a lot of women complain of the same, and also refuse to take it. That's relevant because?

Why not go down the path of coming up with a solution that is usable for men as well as vastly improving those that are available to women? You would not buy a laptop that made you moody, teary, hurt you or stabbed you in the balls once every two years. Why are we happy that these are our only LARC options?

It's not easy to design a non permanent contraception for men for all the reasons already mentioned. A hormonal method won't work in the same way it would for women and this seems like a reasonable approach to a barrier/surgical option. We won't know more until further trials but if it causes no more than minor discomfort for a day or two it sounds like a viable method and not nearly as terrible a one as you've painted it to be OP.

I think the problem with a male pill is that everything they have come up with so far lowers the libido. So does the female pill for many women, but that somehow isn't important...

I dont think there are many men who would see a needle to the jewels as being better for them than "just getting the woman to keep doing what shes doing even if she nags for a bit", especially when theyll need to have it every 2 years - theres already a lot of shying away from the needle for a vasectomy and they only need to do that once.

Yeah, it will take women just refusing to have sex with them to change that.

If the options are no sex or a needle near the balls, then perhaps the needle starts to look less frightening.

Considering that the pill for women lowers the libido, that should not be so very hard to do.

"Why are we happy that these are our only LARC options?"

People might not be happy that they're the only options, but for as long as the risks of using them are less than the risks of pregnancy, people will choose the LARC. Because of the reliability, mainly. And that you don't need to remember anything.

And I think a lot of women are extremely happy that there are contraceptive options that were not availability to our mothers and grandmother.

Yes, there could be more and better. There could in theory be unicorns, but we have to deal with the horses we have now, and those in training that will be better. The world sure as hell hasn't stopped looking a new contraceptive technologies (the Chinese, the Indians and the Aussies are all serious research nations).

Fwiw, my DH's response was, 'cool, when can I get that, then?'.

It's not a great option, but it's better than the current choices for men, which consist of the not-nice-to-use, not-reliable condom or sterilisation or....Well....

I think it might be surprising how it we'll catch on, especially with a bit of education.

It's going to end up just like ironing... in theory they're perfectly capable of it, but they will leave it up for us to do anyway.

I thought they'd trialled it and it was a no-go because of the intolerance to the side effects?

Sorry crossed thoughts there....

Forget last post

A small needle in the scrotum is nothing, if I hadn't had a vasectomy and testicular cancer I would have done it.....

My DH and his friends all have their prostates checked out so I don't think that we can assume that men are that squeamish.

I'd imagine needles or no needles that this would be very popular. I wonder how effective it is. If it's a 100% then it would be amazing and I imagine most young men would want it. My adult DSs definitely don't want children at the moment and I'm guessing that they would love to be able to be in complete control of their own fertility.

I'm sure my DP would happily consider it if it ever became a thing, seeing as neither of us want children. However, it wouldn't be necessary given i have an implant and don't suffer any side effects that i've noticed on the 2 1/2 years i've had one. That being said, he might well decide to get it anyway just as a back up to my implant, but i'm perfectly happy being "the one on LARC" for as long as i am not negatively affected by it, but i appreciate a lot of women don't settle with it the way i have.

theres already a lot of shying away from the needle for a vasectomy and they only need to do that once.

Considering that there is a 1 in 10 chance of long term pain and multiple operations that are needed that may not solve the problem.

A vasectomy is a much different issue than a needle to the balls.

My blood pressure it starting to rise at all these men laughing at the idea of enduring a micro second of pain to their precious junk in order to shoulder some of the contraceptive burden.

I have an injection in my arse every twelve weeks. Not as sensitive as a scrotum, obviously, but sometimes it hurts enough to make me clench my jaw and groan through gritted teeth. But, y'know, it's over in a minute or two, and the benefits far outweigh that measly negative.

And I'm one of the lucky ones: I'm perfectly compatible with progesterone contraception, and personally think it's a scientific miracle that periods are a distant memory to me. The idea of the coil gives me the heebie-jeebies, but I'd do it if I had to.

I think the thing is, I hate the idea of IUDs, but I have plenty of friends / have read plenty of people on MN saying it's really no big deal, so I know that if it came to it it'd be fine. Same with colposcopies and smear tests and all that. I'd imagine that once this injection starts to take off (if it does succeed) then men will hear of other men having had it and how it's not that bad, and it'll trickle down. I actually expect the main uptake will be among young, college / university-age men who don't want to take the risk. Our husbands will be the grumpy cowardly old dinosaurs for being scared of modern science, akin to my mum being scared of our WiFi router.

I think a lot of men would go for it. Men who really don't want a child. I will absolutely be persuading DS to have it as soon as it is available. No mistakes, no uncertainty.

I still wish they would develop a pill for men as well though

Sorry - persuading is wrong word - suggesting is what I meant.

To add to our informal survey, I've just asked DH and he says so long as they sort out the reversible part, then sure, he would.

I wonder - could they do something similar for women? Gel in the fallopian tubes? What would happen to the eggs/ovaries if you blocked the exit? Although I suppose reaching the fallopian tubes would mean keyhole surgery, so maybe that's why no one's investigating that.