this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
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A Welsh scientist working on a new male pill wants to reduce the burden on women of protecting against unwanted pregnancies.

Prof Chris Barratt is leading research on a non-hormonal drug which prevents sperm cells from reaching an egg.

His team at the University of Dundee has received significant funding from the Bill and Melina Gates Foundation.

"It's been a very poorly researched topic for 40 or 50 years," Prof Barratt said, but society has changed.

His team's research could see men given a gel or a pill that would affect the sperm cell, effectively disabling its function.

Instead of targeting the production of sperm, his research focuses on slowing the sperm cells' swimming action down and making them similar to those in infertile patients.

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[–] Salad_Fries 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

From my understanding, its more along the lines of “risk averse regulators see the side effects as unacceptable”… not “crybaby men are crybabies” like your post infers. (Seriously, your post has some really toxic vibes)

Birth control has a lot of very horrible side effects.. in addition to the common hormonal changes, they also come with things such as an increased risk of stroke.

For women, child birth is extremely intense on the body with lots of increased risk. Lets look at the stroke side effect as an example.. birth control causes increased risk of stroke, but pregnancy causes an even higher risk of stroke. Its easy for regulators to justify the stroke risk of birth control because it actively prevents the higher stroke risk of pregnancy.

For men, child birth comes with no risk whatsoever because they cant physically get pregnant. lets look at that same stroke side effect for example.. birth control provides increased risk of stroke, but comes with no medical benefit. that increased risk is extremely difficult to medically justify.

Essentially, childbirth/pregnancy is extremely high risk for women, which makes it easier to justify the side effects for a medication that prevents it. The risks of childbirth/pregnancy dont exist for men though, so its much harder to justify the same side effects.

Yes, it feels unfair and fucked up, but thats because reproduction is inherently unfair and fucked up…

there may be something to be said about whether or not the regulators factor in the externalities of the pregnant partner when looking at approving such medication.. i have absolutely no clue though.