‘Before we go any further, are you on the pill?’
This may soon be a question asked to both men and women as male birth control is possibly making its way onto pharmacy shelves soon. Scientists at the University of Washington have discovered if they combine two hormones, they can create a contraceptive that decreases sperm production in a pill form.
This will be the second time male birth control has been tested on humans, however this time the results were found effective and with expected side effects, such as weight gain, fatigue and acne.
The introduction of a contraceptive pill for men may change discussions between partners and give men more decision-making power in conversations about fertility between partners. In a 2017 study by the Culture, Health & Sexuality Journal, 44 U.S. male university students were asked how much of a say they had in their partner’s oral contraceptive use.
“While men largely agree that responsibility for sexual health decision-making should be shared with women, they also believe that women should have power over their own bodies and sexual health,” the study says. “Thus, men largely give contraceptive decision-making power to women . . .”
Who will take the pill?
In a 2010 study found in The Journal of Sex Research, 151 men were asked if they would take a contreceptive pill. According to the study, 55.6 percent of men said yes, 18.5 percent said probably yes, 18.5 percent said they most likely wouldn’t and 7.3 percent said they wouldn’t at all.
“Men who expressed greater willingness to use the pill preferred smaller families, scored lower on the California F scale, were more favorably disposed to population planning and abortion, and rated vasectomy, tubal ligation, and the contraceptive pill for females as acceptable methods of birth control,” as described in the study.
With the popularity of hookup culture since the emergence of contraceptives and if men’s birth control pill passes the final stages of testing, we may see more likeliness of young adults choosing casual relationships.
History of birth control
Along with a push in family planning policies from the U.S. government in the late 1960s and 1970s, the birth control pill became popular enough that from 1960 to 1976, the U.S. fertility rate decreased from 3.65 to 1.74. Canada saw a similar decrease during this time, with a rate of 3.81 to 1.8.
Another factor for the decrease of fertility rates was the great depression.
This begs the question: if there was this much of a drop when the women’s birth control pill was launched, then what happens when we provide oral contraception to men?
Men’s birth control could change the way relationships are conducted in the next few decades, as we have seen in the past with the introduction of female birth control pills.