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Contraception in men is not a very common happenstance, now, is it? While shots and injections have been in predominance till now, a new form of oral contraception is set to make a breakthrough in this field. This new birth control pill for men is expected to be harmless and impose little to no side effects in any of the overall reproductive functions in a man with its daily oral consumption.
The study was conducted with 83 healthy men and the results and conclusion were presented in the Endo 2018 which is the Endocrine Society’s 100th Annual Meeting which was held in Chicago, Illinois. The male oral contraceptive pill, named dimethandrolone undecanoate (DMAU) functions much like how a woman contraceptive pill would work.
The research’s senior investigator, Stephanie Page, who is also the Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington stated that this oral pill combines the activity of a male hormone (testosterone) along with a progestin and needs to be taken once a day to meet the concluded results.
Prof. Page further stated saying that this new male contraceptive pill is a breakthrough in this field, primarily because a majority of men have exclaimed wanting a daily pill as a reversible contraceptive, rather than the shots and in-vitro methods or even the topical gels that have been in prominence till now.
The new research stemmed from the lack of these novel drugs in the market that function well without inflicting serious side effects. The researchers noticed that the available male birth control pills that are now found over the counter have the sheer possibilities of inducing liver inflammation in the individual which is definitely a big downside. Not just that, it was also found that the currently available ones tend to clear off the body at a faster pace, thus needing more than one dosage every single day.
This new contraceptive pill for men, the DMAU has the undecanoate which is a long chain fatty acid in its composition. This prevents the quick clearance of the drug out of the body, thus assuring that one dosage every day is more than enough for the effects of the drug to stay in the body.
This male contraceptive drug has been formulated and developed at the National Institutes of Health. The entire process and the study that went behind the formulation and final conclusion were funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
While the study initially started off with 100 healthy men in between the ages of 18 to 50 years, only 83 of them successfully completed the entire study. The study was conducted at the University Of Washington Medical Center and at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA, the latter under the supervision of the co-author of the study, Dr Christina Wang.
Three distinct doses of the DMAU was tested out on the subjects – 100, 200 and 400 mg. Even the formulations inside the capsules had two distinct composition, one with castor oil and the other with powder. Each of the dosage group had 5 distinct members who were administered with an inactive placebo while the rest of the 12-15 men were administered with DMAU. The drug as well as the placebo was given once a day with a meal. Prof. Page made it very assertive that the drug needs to be administered with food and not on its own.
For the conclusions and results, Prof. Page concluded stating that the ones with the highest administered dosage of 400 mg of the DMAU showed starking lowered levels of their levels of testosterone in their body which she referred to as “marked suppression”. Not just that, along with the primary androgen, even some associated hormones linked with sperm production was seen to have remarkably low levels in the blood stream.
The most positive outcome that Prof. Page exclaimed was that the men, inspite of their remarkably lowered levels of testosterone, they didn’t show any negative symptoms or side effects associated with the deficiency of testosterone in the body.
Except for a little weight gain and mild lowering in the levels of HDL concentration in the body, the rest was concluded to be fine and suitable for consumption. The drug even passed the safety tests inclined with the markers associated with the Liver and Kidney functions which was yet another breakthrough.
Even with all these conclusions, there still need to be even more extensive study encircling this contraception pill for men to test out every scope of possibility conducting to the lowered levels of sperm production.