The Myth Of Male Birth Control

It’s been ‘10 years away’ for the past 50 years. Are we just getting conned?

- Hannah Smothers

The scene: Alex (or maybe his name is Andile or Jesse) brought you back to his place and things are totally on. His arms? Beefy. His kissing skills? Clutch. His hair? Like Zeus himself blow-dried it. Clothes are coming off and then, right at the crucial moment, he looks at you with eyes a colour you’ve only ever seen before on tropical postcards and whispers slowly into your ear, ‘Don’t worry, babe. I’m on the Pill.’

The idea that this scenario could be a reality has been looming for what feels like forever. Headlines have promised that longterm, reversible male birth control is *this close*. Then ... nothing. How can women have dozens of contraceptive options and men only have two: onetime-use condoms and permanent vasectomies?

As our investigation found, it depends on who you ask. Some scientists say killing millions of sperm is harder than dealing with one egg. Pharmaceutical companies tend to think it’s too risky to fund the development of something men won’t use. Independent experts blame systemic sexism. Reproduction, they say, is still seen as strictly a ‘women’s issue’.

We also found something else: many of these hang-ups are lies. Researchers have discovered methods that work, and men want their own birth-control options. And according to an exclusive COSMO survey, women want men to have them too.

‘But wanting male birth control is different than us being able to get it approved,’ says Dr John Amory, a medical professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine at the forefront of the latest male BC trials. Here’s why it’s still out of reach.

It ’s not that it ’s not possible