New Birth Control Pill on the Market That S in Art With a T
(CNN)Many people are looking frontwards to a time when men will be able to accept an oral contraceptive.
But there's a challenge with hormonal birth control: suppressing testosterone in men to super-low levels while avoiding the side effects of depression hormone levels, such as changes in sexual role. (Of form, side effects have affected some women since the U.s. Food and Drug Administration first approved "the pill" in 1960.)
Researchers take looked at a number of ways to do this -- not but through a pill, but also through an injection and a topical gel. And now there's a new drug in pill form, which has been evaluated for safety, though not effectiveness. The preliminary results of the latest drug -- which goes by the abridgement 11-beta-MNTDC -- were presented Monday at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Guild.
The trial included 40 healthy men, ages 18 to fifty, including 10 who received a placebo. Despite low testosterone levels in the men taking the drug, the abstract notes "no serious adverse events" and a handful of cases of fatigue, headache, acne, decreased libido and mild erectile dysfunction.
If this seems similar deja-vu: The aforementioned research team presented a similar drug, called DMAU, last year at the same conference. The drugs are synthetic molecules that acquit similarity to male sex hormones -- namely, testosterone.
The ii drugs "are like blood brother and sis," explained ane of the written report'south senior investigators, Dr. Christina Wang, associate manager of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute. Wang explained that, when it comes to drug development, researchers don't always put their eggs in i handbasket. If one doesn't work as expected, perhaps there'due south a backup, she said.
Experts say the drugs signal to the encephalon that testosterone levels are adequate, inhibiting the pathways that ultimately lead to the production of sperm. Wang said the new drug is meant to mimic testosterone'south furnishings in other parts of the body, which could be how information technology avoids major side effects. It may not stimulate sperm product in the testicles because the drug itself might not pass over from the blood stream -- but that theory could but be fleshed out with hereafter research, she said.
Wang said she expects people will have to wait roughly a decade for hormonal male contraception to hit the marketplace. Future research must include longer-term studies that tin can make sure sperm production really comes to a halt, she said. While her team establish that testosterone levels fell over the course of one month on the drug, sperm production tin accept several months -- so it will take much longer studies to show how the drug really impacts sperm production, Wang explained.
Dr. Bobby Najari, banana professor and managing director of the Male Infertility Plan at NYU Langone Health, called the research heady, adding that at that place's huge demand for effective contraception that allows men to be more active in family planning. The ease of a male contraceptive pill seems more viable for widespread use than injections studied in the past, he said.
Still, 10 years to market seems optimistic to him. It's expensive to make an idea into reality, and lengthy, well-designed studies are required to brand sure such a contraceptive is safe, effective and reversible.
The hope of a safe and effective oral male contraceptive "has been ever on the verge of becoming a reality, just I feel similar I've been hearing that for a long fourth dimension now," said Najari, who was not involved in the new enquiry. "I think information technology'southward going to take at least x years, if not longer."
He noted this new enquiry considered only one calendar month, and there were some changes in participants' cholesterol levels. A male person contraceptive would be of interest to men of many ages, Najari said, and this could be peculiarly concerning for older men at higher risk of heart disease.
"The condom information in that group of men shouldn't be ignored," he said.
In the meantime, at that place's always condoms and vasectomies. Neither is both long-lasting and easily reversible, experts say. Other potential avenues take also been the focus of research, including an injectable gel that blocks sperm from exiting the testicles.
Wang said she's spoken to a number of couples who are looking forward to a birth control pill for men. Some women have a difficult time on birth control, for example. And some couples merely want to find new and convenient means to brand contraception a joint effort, she added.
"Many of them want to share responsibility," Wang said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/25/health/male-birth-control-conference-study/index.html
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