Is birth control for men finally on the way?

Brut America

Birth control has mainly fallen under the responsibility of women, but that could change — soon.

Transcript

00:00Birth control pills should be for men.

00:03It makes more sense to unload the gun

00:05than to shoot out a bulletproof vest.

00:14Birth control for men could be closer than we think.

00:17We are getting closer to the day when men

00:19will have the option of taking a birth control pill.

00:21A possible birth control breakthrough.

00:24The joke in the field has been that

00:26a male contraceptive has been five years away

00:28for the last 35 years.

00:30It's been a long time.

00:38Okay, so apparently male birth control

00:40is like underway, but it's non-hormonal

00:43because they didn't want men to have the same side effects.

00:46And it's like, um,

00:49cause you have like a little bit of side effects.

01:01Both of these have their drawbacks.

01:03Condoms, while fully reversible,

01:05are somewhat intrusive,

01:07and are associated with about a 13% failure rate

01:10over one year of use.

01:12Vasectomies are a highly effective form

01:14of male contraception,

01:16but they require surgery,

01:18and they can be difficult to reverse.

01:20So if you have a male contraceptive,

01:22and you have a female contraceptive,

01:24and you have a male contraceptive,

01:26and you have a female contraceptive,

01:28they can be difficult to reverse.

01:30So they're not considered a fully reversible

01:32method of male contraception.

01:46People often ask,

01:47why do we have female contraceptives,

01:49but not male contraceptives?

01:51Well, there's two reasons.

01:52The first of which is that

01:54men make over a thousand sperm every second,

01:57whereas women make one egg every month.

02:00The second reason is that

02:02women have a period during their reproductive lives,

02:04that is when they're pregnant,

02:06when they're not actively producing eggs,

02:08whereas men don't have an analogous period.

02:11This means that the female contraceptive

02:13works by mimicking pregnancy,

02:15making the woman feel she's pregnant,

02:17so she doesn't produce an egg.

02:27The notion of risk from a male contraceptive

02:41is somewhat novel.

02:43And in thinking about this,

02:46ethicists have proposed

02:48that as long as the risk to the couple is reduced,

02:52that even some serious risks

02:54associated with a male contraceptive,

02:56as long as they are rare,

02:57would be justifiable.

03:05Men in surveys that have been done around the world

03:09have evinced a strong desire

03:11to have the option of a male contraceptive available.

03:14Roughly two-thirds of men, when surveyed,

03:16say that they would be very interested

03:18in using a male method,

03:20as long as it were proven to be safe and effective.

03:26For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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