The Moment We’ve All Been Waiting For: Male Birth Control
Written by Emily Rowe
Edited by Connie Quan
Jan 18, 2021
Edited by Connie Quan
Jan 18, 2021
Ever since birth control was first created, the responsibility has always fallen on women to take a pill or insert a device into their bodies to avoid pregnancy. This responsibility has been fueled by the heavy focus on women when producing and marketing contraceptives. There are countless methods of birth control marketed to women, yet there continues to be barriers popping up that prevent them from accessing these resources in a safe and effective way. Unplanned pregnancies have led to poverty, health, and safety issues all around the world. Bill and Melinda Gates are two individuals who have taken action to tackle these issues, and they have been leaders in funding solutions for these problems. One of these solutions includes the development of male birth control.
You may be wondering, why hasn’t science explored this idea until now? Well, aside from political and social reasons, it is actually very difficult to study this field. Until recently, there has not been much pressure for researchers to study male fertility, causing very little to be known about how sperm functions. For example, scientists have been unsuccessful in finding the key protein that specifically targets a sperm’s functions after leaving the male body. This means that after a sperm cell has left the body, the protein responsible for controlling how fast it can reach the egg is still unknown. The discovery of this protein could lead researchers to find ways to inhibit the effectiveness of that protein, thereby halting the fertilization process. With so many drugs available, it has also been near impossible to conduct testing and trials effectively for research.
One of the ways researchers at the University of Dundee are tackling this problem is with the development of a robotic system that allows for the study of sperm cells and their functions up close through the use of a microscope and image-processing tools. Without this new robotic system, it would be difficult to track sperm mobility, which is one of the key factors in fertilization. However, another barrier that researchers are working to overcome involves the screening of over 13,000 drugs to study a variety of effective and safe drugs that can specifically target sperm function. Although this process will most likely take a long time, this extensive study will hopefully help scientists determine if any of the male birth control drugs are suitable for long-term use just like the female-birth control methods that are available now. By combining robotics and drug research, the University of Dundee in Scotland is set to lead the world in closing the inequality gap between male and female birth control methods.
Works Cited
University of Dundee. "Stopping sperm in its tracks: latest progress in the hunt for a male contraceptive." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 January 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200128095516.htm>.
Image Source: "Closeup of pregnancy test” by rawpixel.com licensed under Freepik License.