Male Birth Control
Pills Reversible After Few Months - Men's Contraceptive Study Concerning
Hormone Treatment to Prevent Sperm Production
April 28th 2006
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Male contraceptive pills have been available in clinical trials for some time now and there
is now evidence that sperm recovery can be obtained within three or four
months. Research published in this weeks journal The Lancet, highlight
the fact that male hormone treatment for contraception can be reversed
in just a few months.
This is especially good news for men who are sexually active and do not
want children. Other male contraceptive methods are either not
sufficiently reliable or not easily reversible. In a similar way to
ovulation suppression by hormone treatment in women, sperm production
can be fully inhibited by androgen or androgen-progestagen treatment
combinations in men. With such hormone treatment, azoospermia (i.e. no
sperm in ejaculate) or severe oligozoospermia (or less than 3 million
sperm per milliliter of semen), which is sufficient for contraception.
The researchers analyzed data from 30 studies published between 1990 and
2005. These studies monitored sperm output every month until recovery.
They found that the average time for sperm recovery (20 million per
milliliter) was 3 - 4 months. Peter Liu from the Los Angeles Biomedical
Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), who is
currently located at the ANZAC Research Institute, University of Sydney,
Australia, and colleagues, conducted the research. They consider 20
million sperm per milliliters an indicator of fertility.
Data were available for around 1500 men. There were variations in the
recovery time. Reasons for higher rates of recover include older age,
Asian origin, shorter treatment duration, and higher sperm
concentrations at baseline. Although the speed of recovery varied, all
of the men experienced spermatogenesis recovery. The researchers said
“Our data provide strong assurance that the previously described
efficacy of hormonal male contraceptives is coupled with highly
predictable recovery to semen characteristics that are compatible with
fertility. These findings thereby increase the promise of new
contraceptive drugs allowing men to share more fairly the satisfaction
and burden of family planning."
There are currently two large scales studies being conducted. A phase
III study with an androgen treatment and a large, multi-center phase II
study of androgen-progestagen combinations are being completed in China
and Europe, respectively.
By Dan Wilson
Best Syndication
Books on Pregnancy
Keywords and misspellings: priatal prenatal pre-natal
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