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 by Kathleen Belew 10/31/2002 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will grant $9.5 million to the UW to fund a five-year research project in pursuit of hormonal contraception for men, according to a press release issued yesterday. Dr. William Bremner, chair of the UW Department of Medicine, will head the new Male Contraception Research Center. Although the grant will fund research toward both injections and oral contraceptives, the idea is to produce something analogous to the female birth-control pill. Call it science or part of the battle of the sexes, the “male pill” has made headlines lately as researchers get closer to a working product. One pharmaceutical company in Europe plans to produce a shelf-ready product in four to five years, but Bremner said that’s a very rough estimate. “I wouldn’t go to the bank with that, so to speak,” Bremner said. “It, frankly, is not seen as a big money-maker by the pharmaceutical companies.” In fact, since the prospect of hormonal male birth control is seen as such a low-budget item, funding for research on male contraception is taken on almost entirely by public interest groups such as the NIH. Bremner has researched male birth-control methods for more than 20 years. He’s spent a significant portion of that time trying to sort out the social and funding barriers for the male pill. “I used to argue that there was not a gender bias in this area,” Bremner said, explaining that, scientifically, it is easier to halt egg production than it is to halt sperm production. Now, he sees that the demand for male birth-control methods might make the complex research worthwhile. About a third of contraception is achieved through male methods — vasectomy and condoms. Both those methods have major drawbacks, since vasectomies are usually irreversible and condoms have to be used in every instance of intercourse in order to be effective. “Despite that, they’re commonly used,” Bremner noted. “There’s a lot of surveys, too, that say 70 percent to 80 percent of men would use [hormonal birth-control methods] if they were safe and effective.” Bremner used to say the people most likely to use hormonal male birth control would be monogamous couples. Now, he believes that young promiscuous men might also find the pill useful, in order to avoid paternity claims. In early hormonal studies using an implant under the skin, a woman would be able to tell by touch if a man was on hormonal birth control. But with a pill or injection, things wouldn’t be so clear. “So the guy says that he’s on the pill,” Bremner said. “Would the woman trust him?” Other than the condom, which was invented hundreds of years ago, no reversible-method contraception exists for men. Experts call male contraception a neglected area of research. The hormonal method would target the male pituitary gland, which produces two hormones with no known function other than triggering sperm production in the testes. The pill or injection would “turn off” these hormones, and then artificially provide the testosterone, which would otherwise disappear as a side effect. Although it would take three to four months to become effective, a male pill would not have to be taken at regular times, as the female pill does. It would also take three to four months for the effects to wear off. “Spermatogenesis is a fairly long process,” Bremner said. The female pill, since its introduction and popularization in the late part of the 20th century, has become one of the most widely used birth-control methods. Hormonal methods — including Depo-provera, the pill, and Norplant — comprise a substantial portion of contraception. “I would be guessing at least 30 percent to 40 percent of all contraception is done that way,” Bremner said. Next Article |
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