I thought that this may be up for debate here. I’ve always wondered why they never make a pill for guys to take to make the sterile. I would think it would be easier to kill the little swimmers then to interupt a womans whole cycle. So, what’s the deal? Why no pill for me?
This is more of a GQ, but…
I would think it would be much more convenient to render one egg as opposed to millions upon millions of sperm. Unless of course the pill would disrupt the actual production of the sperm.
I never thought about that.
This is just one site of many describing a male birth control ‘pill’. I use the quotes because the method, in addition to taking a pill, also requires a testosterone pellet to be implanted in the man’s body (in teh article they say that testosteron cannot be taken orally because the liver renders it useless). The study is preliminary but effectiveness was encouraging.
That said I have worked in the reproductive health field and women seemingly don’t care very much for the male contraceptive. They don’t have a problem with it per se but they do not trust men enough to be responsible for taking a pill every day (not to mention some who might lie about it to avoid using a condom). Given that women are the ones who are saddled with the results of failed contraception most women would just as soon keep the birth control reigns firmly in their own hands. About the only exception to this would be in committed relationships where presumably the female could have more faith in her SO’s pill taking habits.
Checkmate has opened a thread in GQ on this subject, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84344 so I think it best if this one be closed.
For future reference, please e-mail a moderator to request that your thread be moved, rather than to open a new one in a different forum.
bibliophage
moderator, GQ