- cross-posted to:
- science@mander.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- science@mander.xyz
A gel injected into the scrotum could be the next male contraceptive::Biotech company Contraline has safely implanted a sperm-blocking hydrogel in 23 men. It’s designed to be a fully reversible vasectomy.
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Is this not the exact same thing as vasalgel? How is this new or different?
Vaselgel is too cheap to manufacture to get the funding it needs to bring it to market, that’s why they have been trying for 20 years and haven’t succeeded yet. In the US the rights are owned by a non profit Parsemu Foundation formed to fund it. It looks like their private partner NEXT Life Sciences is actually set to come to market with a vaselgel product in 2026 they are calling Plan A.
Interesting marketing choice comparing it to the Plan B pill.
From what I’m reading, they’re not set to go to market; that’s just their goal. Most recent article I found was middle of last year that they had raised more money and were hoping to go to human trials by the end of the year. That aligns with what I remember about Vasalgel from years ago - they had finally made it to monkey trials but their monkey study was not showing a consistent ability to return to virility with the second injection. I seem to remember the proposed reason being that vas deferens in the monkeys/apes they were testing with are actually more delicate than humans’ and so humans should still likely be reversible. Last I heard, I believe they were trying to move forward on the human trial of proving that it works as a contraceptive, to be followed by a human trial showing reversibility. Then radio silence and funding issues. My assumption has always been that they struggled to jump to human trials because of the primate study results hurting the likelihood of reversibility. Hopefully they have reworked it to solve that, or maybe the acquisition and new funding is enough to just push through that regardless and see if humans will be fine.
If Plan A works, you don’t need Plan B… 😄
I think that was always the point of the name. this would just be a new plan A.
More options are great I suppose, but as a gem-xer I don’t get the modern revolt against the condom. Modern condoms are pretty damn thin / good and are a form of male birth control with bonus of very good disease prevention, have next to no side effects, and minimize messes too.
Condoms suck for everyone involved
That’s an interesting generalization. I’m going to to count myself out of everyone then.
This kind of thing pops up repeatedly. There’s some big, splashy news about a male contraceptive, and then it flames out, or ends up being vaporware.
The problem is that you need to stop a few million sperm with every single ejaculation; reducing that number by 99% means that you’re still risking pregnancy. Severing the ductus deferens (a vasectomy) means no sperm get through; trying to clip or block them means that some can potentially get through. Hormonal BC has the same issue; while it significantly reduces sperm count, it may not eliminate it entirely. (And there can be some really significant negative side effects from eliminating endogenous testosterone production, since hormonal levels need to be pretty far out of whack before there’s a really big cut in sperm production.)
OTOH, women have to stop two eggs per month, or stop them from being implanted in the uterine wall. A 99% reduction in fertility for women means that it’s very, very unlikely that they’re going to be able to get pregnant.
(Yes, women suffer from hormonal BC as well, but some women need it just to be able to live normal lives. It’s overall less of a problem than it ends up being for men. And women have the option of an IUD as well.)
Personally, I’m in favor of vasectomy; it’s allowed me to avoid having any children for 20-odd years now.
You mean we can’t blame the patriarch for under investment in men’s contraceptives and that it’s actually biology to blame? I’m SHOCKED.
Also, maybe I don’t want a needle stuck into my balls.
Maybe my partner taking oral contraceptive is better to ensure she doesn’t get pregnant.
Also are women supposed to just trust guys, or are they going to protect themselves every time.
Maybe the real reason we don’t have a male oral contraceptive is because the female ones protect the female first and foremost because people suck.
This isn’t exactly new. Vasalgel offers a similar injection that blocks the tubes, however before then back in the early 2010’s there was also a guy in India testing a better version which did not block the tubes - the compound was polarised, and when the sperm went through it was disoriented such that it couldn’t swim to the egg. The human clinical trials had a 100% success rate at preventing pregnancy, albeit human trials tend not to have that many people (I think there were 26). My understanding is that this became Vasalgel because the pharmacuetical industry didn’t like the fact that it completely avoided the complications that can come with vasectomies where the tube is completely blocked.
Wonder what could go wrong here? Ever here of a Hydrocele?
A vasectomy in my twenties was the best decision I ever made.
10/10, would snip, tie and burn again.
