How far off are we? Will it be a reality in the near future?
Also, how do they test them? Do they just take men and women who are apathetic about getting pregnant? I’d hate to be one of the participants and the pill didn’t work!
The new sacrament.
There’s one being used now. It’s about the size of a pea with sharp points sticking out of it. You put it in your shoe and it makes you go limp.
BWAAAHAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
GAWD, I’m funny.
Rande…
I’m afraid I don’t know the name of it, or what hormone was used, but in one of my courses a prof mentioned that one was developed, and passed all the necessary clinical trials, and they got to the point of testing it in humans, but gave up, because it DID work.
Too well.
Men lost all their sex drive, and couldn’t get it up. NOT what they were looking for!
I’ll see if I can find more specifics, but based on the material of the course, and the work that prof does, I have no reason to doubt him!
The “male pill” will never catch on, for several reasons. First, there is the whole “sexual drive/performance” issue that mnemosyne mentioned. Second is that fact that, numbers wise, it doesn’t make sense. If a woman doesn’t take the pill, how many pregnancies can result? One. If a man doesn’t take the pill, the number of pregnancies that can result is theoretically very large. So women will always bear the brunt of birth control efforts. It isn’t fair, but it is a fact.
Also, for women, stopping fertility is a matter of disrupting a very complex, very delicate series of horomonal reactions. For men, it requires screwing up every single sperm cell that leaves the testes, without actually damaging said testes. That’s much more difficult.
Tasteless joke I heard on some night time talk show years ago (Jay, David, Conan not sure) “Did you hear they invented the male birth control pill…yup, you take it the morning after and it changes your blood type”
It’s under development and expected to be around in about 3 years, according to these articles:
[ul]
[li]Drug companies work to develop ‘male pill’[/li][li]Male contraceptive expected in three years[/li][/ul]
I would imagine that some of the distaste for such a solution comes from the fact that it would obviate the one truly (partially) effective preventor of sexually transmitted diseases–the condom. The condom, nominally effective as it is, is also a preventor of many sexually transmitted diseases. That may be its most important role, as it is the sole full-barrier contraceptive in common use.
The condom is what, maybe 90% effective in preventing pregnancy, tops, last American scare-into-abstinence guide I read. But it is equally effective in preventing the spread of syphillis, herpes, HIV, gonorrhea, and a host of other diseases. If I may be a bastard (innuendo intended), the condom is the social bulwark which allows attempted cuckoldry to go unrecognized in many societies, particularly that of Western Europe and by cultural association the United States to a lesser or greater degree.
Fix the problem of pregnancy, and cheating isn’t going to cease to be the biological truth for many people. With that comes the scourge of disease into the superficially monogamous household. We’ll be back to keeping either men or women in chains, one or the other, barring a cure for these otherwise prolific diseases.
(There were of course several excellent threads on this subject with relevant links, particularly relating to an SDMB GQ thread on cuckoldry in the UK, which is currently unavailable due to the borked search engine. I refuse to duplicate those results, as it is a waste of time versus ignorance. You don’t like it? Take the SDMB’s for it–it was as good as gold before we floated the standard.)
I’m looking foward to the ads.
I almost will be disapointed if its not some sorta “wink wink” implyed “you can have sex with EVERYONE NOW!” sort of ad
Seen one of those commercials for herpes treatments or whatever lately? If the herpes people can have a happy, sex-filled life, why can’t people using the male pill?
silenus:
Commonly held sentiment, but you’re missing the point, as are the ones who point to STDs etc. The market for the male pill would not be guys who are doing a lot of casual sex with different women, but rather men in ongoing relationships where reproduction is not a desired outcome.
While I’d question the sanity and/or intelligence of women who’d trust their male partners to make sure they didn’t get pregnant, I’d also question the mental capacity of men who’d trust their female partners to make sure they didn’t become unintentional fathers if there were a decently reliable and decently safe male pill available. Your cuddleperson of the current season could discover that she’s pregnant (oops) and decide to have and keep it, then look at you and think, “He’s ‘Daddy’? Uh uh, no way. Cute for the moment but he’s outta here.” You are in no position to insist that she get an abortion, nor do you have any leverage to insist that she split the parenting experience down the middle with you. But you do still get to pay child support.