They have shown that a contraceptive pill for men is safe

2018/03/26 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

Hormonal contraceptives for men developed so far have failed to overcome clinical trials because the side effects they produced were not acceptable. The most prominent side effects were acne, mood swings, depression and fattening. Now they have presented a pill that has hardly any negative consequences.

The clinical session of the pill has been held at the University of Washington and the results have been presented at the American Endocrinology Conference. One hundred volunteers aged 15 to 50 years have taken orally for a month a compound called DMAU (dimensiondrolona undecanoate). This caused the levels of hormones needed for sperm production to decrease considerably. In turn, volunteers who received more doses were fattened, but had no other significant side effects.

DMAU combines a variant of testosterone with progesterone. In fact, testosterone, taken orally, is expelled too quickly before birth control occurs. The undecanate allows to cushion the removal.

However, it has only passed the first phase of clinical sessions. In the next phase, they will have to test their effectiveness and then perform tests to determine doses with much more volunteers. However, it is more likely to reach the market than previously tested ones. Then consumers will have the last word.