Washington University School of Medicine (USA) just announced that a male contraceptive pill had successfully passed the tests for tolerance and reliability. The results of these phase 1 tests have just been presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Endocrinological Society: they indicate that this male oral contraceptive experimental decreased sperm production while preserving libido.
No marketing for 10 years
This contraceptive (now called 11-beta-MNTDC) is a type of modified testosterone that combines the action of a male hormone (androgen) and progesterone. It was tested on 30 healthy men from Seattle and Torrance (California): 14 of them took 200 mg of this hormone daily and 16 took 400 mg while 10 other study participants received a placebo capsule. The test lasted 28 days.
This pill mimics the effects of natural testosterone so as to inhibit the production of sperm. But 28 days is too short an interval to draw firm conclusions about the reliability of contraception. Researchers are already planning longer studies, and if the drug proves effective, they will move on to testing in sexually active couples. This suggests that it will take another 10 years to see this male pill hit the market.
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