14 DAY TRIAL // Men are rather irresponsible in what concerns pregnancy. By now, they only have two choices: the condom and vasectomy. But, a new male pill could protect against pregnancy and be devoid of secondary effects on sex drive or long-term effects on a man's fertility.
Many women will escape this way of the hormone pills that make them prone to breast cancer and other diseases. It also involves sharing the responsibility for contraception.
"Anything that could be taken at home every day as a pill and would change the production or quality of sperm very quickly without changing hormones is a good thing", said Allan Pacey, a male fertility expert at Sheffield University and secretary of the British Fertility Society.
The drug, called CDB-4022, has been checked by now just on monkeys, but human trials will start soon.
The drug quickly impedes sperm production, and sperm counts plummeted within a week after male monkeys received the pills. In just 17 days, the animals were practically infertile. Very important, sperm count turned back to normal levels 4 months after the administration of the pill ceased and hormone levels (thus, also the sex drive) were not impacted.
Other male contraceptives have been connected to nasty side effects like hot flushes, mood swings and decreased sex drive, because of variation in the hormone levels. Also, they appear rather as injections, implants and patches, rather than pills.
"Sperm counts went down to a level considered infertile and came back up on their own. And it didn't have any effects on hormones such as testosterone, so we are very excited about it", said co-author Dr. Sheri Hild, of U.S. research firm Bioqual. Longer researches will involve males mating with females to further check the drug.
The drug could come as a once-a-day-pill for men, but also as a weekly tablet, so that the users will be less likely to forget taking the pill.
CDB-4022 impedes the maturation of the sperm cells, inhibiting the nourishing Sertoli cells. Required trials for testing the drug's safeness and effectiveness mean that the drug will be available in several years. The drug is based on a synthetic chemical originally developed as an antihistamine. As mature sperm is not affected by the chemical, users would have to employ an alternative contraception method for the first few weeks of starting taking CDB-4022.