American researchers have successfully developed birth control pills for men. The pills have already been tested in mice and turned out to be 99% effective at making them sterile with no apparent side effects.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota are behind the creation of non-hormonal oral contraceptives for men. Birth control pills for females have been available since the 1960s. However, no such pill designed for males has passed human trials ever.
The human trials of the contraceptive pill developed by Minnesota researchers are set to be held later this year. If found successful, the pill could debut as the first-ever male birth control pill in the pharma market.
These initial findings were presented recently at the American Chemical Society Spring 2022 conference in San Diego, California, by Abdullah al-Noman of Minnesota University’s Institute for Therapeutics Discovery Development (ITDD).
During the laboratory tests, the male mice were given a daily dose of the pill for four weeks. The pill contains a non-hormonal male contraceptive known as YCT529. The sperm count of male mice decreased with time and they became sterile at the end of the four-week period.
Their sperm count gradually started increasing four to six weeks after stopping the daily dose of the oral pill and their ability to reproduce was restored completely after the sixth week.
