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.
A gel injected into the scrotum could be the next male contraceptive
Submitted 4 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world [bot] to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 4 months ago
vsh@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Gel injection live reaction
Furbag@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I gave up on waiting for this tech to become available and just got a vasectomy.
chitak166@lemmy.world 4 months ago
RIP.
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They are going to need to work on their sales pitch…
100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 4 months ago
Meanwhile, BDSM practitioners are thinking “two birds with one stone (to the nuts)”
skeezix@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Hot sexy babe will inject get into your scrotum.
TheHottub@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s the only way I can finish.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
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.
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 4 months ago
All true, but they also feel awful, sometimes painfully tight, and are total erection killers. I use them, but I hate using them.
NOPper@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s the pause in the flow of things to go get one and put it on plus difficulty finding the right size. Used em my entire life until my wife had an IUD put in. After a few ears she had it removed and going back to condoms was not super fun for either of us.
On the bright side for me, a vasectomy solved all these issues and was totally worth the minimal process to get it. This solution sounds like a dream honestly.
Vlyn@lemmy.zip 4 months ago
Feeling awful is true (or having less feeling overall), but you can just buy a bigger size if it’s too tight. The run of the mill condoms are uncomfortable for me too, look at something like www.my-size-condoms.com
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Needles ahoy then mate!
LeafOnTheWind@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Well look at mister big dick over here…
CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com 4 months ago
Condoms suck for everyone
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
That’s an interesting generalization. I’m going to to count myself out of everyone then.
isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
IMO for anyone in a stable monoamorous relationship, the IUD is the superior option, as long as the female partner is a good fit for it and doesn’t have complications from it.
Gordon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
My wife had significant issues with hers, including basically never-ending spotting and occasional surprise periods, cramps, mood issues, etc. She had it removed after 2 years.
I’m thinking a vasectomy is the next thing, but it isn’t covered on my insurance and finding a doctor is intimidating.
Ithi@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
There’s no harm in condom + anything else considering all the horror stories of condoms accidentally/intentionally not working.
This gives another option that sounds pretty easy and not very invasive for anyone.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
There are horror stories for everything. There are also statistics.
TWeaK@lemm.ee 4 months ago
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.
TheWonderfool@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It looks promising, even though it is quite far away from becoming available to the general public.
Still I wish that there was more of a push for something like a contraceptive pill for men. It feels like it has been ignored for years and only now they are starting a bit with development and trials…
remotelove@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
I don’t think it’s been ignored. Birth control pills for men would be a massive money maker. (Here is a recent study I could find on BC for men: www.nih.gov/…/male-contraceptive-disables-sperm)
While I am speaking way outside my confort zone here, it seems magnitudes harder to effectively disable millions of sperm and their associated production as opposed to simply knocking a woman’s hormone balance a little out of whack to prevent ovulation.
The bigger question is being ignored though: If we have to inject our scrotum with a gel, where are we going to store our pee???
Techmaster@lemm.ee 4 months ago
We’ll just have to pee out of our butts like girls do.
Kanzar@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Unfortunately there has to be almost no side effects for almost all users, as there are no (as yet) medical benefits to male contraception.
In women, not being pregnant can prevent death for some of them, regulate painful periods, etc. - it is considered the risk of the myriad side effects is worth it because at least it does some good.
For men, who do not become pregnant, not being able to get someone else pregnant is not a medical benefit for the man.
And unfortunately hormonal modification does cause problems. Lots of them.
RIPandTERROR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Tbh I would call suicide prevention a health benefit. Have you seen the prices of gestures wildly
Chocrates@lemmy.world 4 months ago
These reversable, injectable, male contraceptives have been promised for at least 5 years, when will they come to market?
Jarix@lemmy.world 4 months ago
A lot longer than that unfortunetly
daniskarma@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I’ve been seeing promises about a new male contraceptive for more than a decade now. They never seem to hit the shelves form some reason.
chitak166@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Probably not a very big market.
I would certainly never use anything more than a condom.
erin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Then hopefully you don’t expect women to take birth control or have an IUD.
cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This turns the scrotum into a stress ball.
newcockroach@lemmy.world 4 months ago
TSA:what are you hiding sir. Me:nothing : o TSA:(Boink! Boink!)sir stop resisting! This is standard procedure.(Boink! Boink!)
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 4 months ago
RISUG has been in promised for what, nearly a decade now? This has been the FSD/Star Citizen of the male contraceptive world, always right around the corner.
grayman@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah. I got tired of their promises that it’s only a year or two away like 7 years ago.
stown@sedd.it 4 months ago
Is this not the exact same thing as vasogel? How is this new or different?
Ignisnex@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Not sure, this seems to be exactly what vasalgel is. At first, I thought the innovation was that they just squirt this stuff into your sack and call it a day, and that would have been different. But nope! Same injection site too. Maybe it’s more effective or something.
RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Contraline’s method involves making a small piercing in the scrotum and using a handheld injector to push the hydrogel through a catheter that’s connected to the vas deferens. The catheter is then taken out, and the puncture heals on its own.
That sounds like a bit more than just an injection. Not quite like going in for a flu shot to the nuts
Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Been trying this for 2 decades
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
bet politicians wont be lining up to regular and ban this after 15 weeks
Philo@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Wonder what could go wrong here? Ever here of a Hydrocele?
Rooskie91@discuss.online 4 months ago
Do you think female birth control is 100% safe and comfortable for women? Hydrocele are nothing compared to some of the adverse side affects of female birth control. Hydrocele only form in the thing sheath surrounding the testical, are do to physical irritation (not injected fluid), and usually go away on their own. Also, I’d imagine people smart enough to develop male birth control considered that exceptionally common alement.
Riccosuave@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They have been using this successfully on primates for about two decades. While there are potentially complications with EVERY medical procedure; this is a significantly safer, cheaper, and more effective means of reversible mechanical birth control than anything that has ever been done before. It is truly a revolutionary technology that will no doubt change human civilization.
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I mean, as a man, even if it’s tested and 99% safe it just sounds weird. If it’s not a pill or a regular injection I can’t see many men lining up for a scrotum filling.
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Thank you for that. I could have sworn I read about this over a decade ago.
DarkThoughts@fedia.io 4 months ago
It is truly a revolutionary technology that will no doubt change human civilization.
I loled.
Mostly_Harmless@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Wanna bet?
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Oh Wired. You desperate clickbaiting bastards.
Ain’t no man getting a shot in the scrotum. Puh leeze.
Vlyn@lemmy.zip 4 months ago
Men already get cut open down there and then get their pipes cut and burned. A small injection that is reversible would actually be better. As long as it works very reliably (which it probably won’t).
Hell, there have been cases where even the cutting healed by its own and suddenly they got someone pregnant.
Besides the risk for permanent pain in the area, a vasectomy is not 100% risk free unfortunately (or I would have done it years ago without hesitation).
pelya@lemmy.world 4 months ago
How does it compare to Vasalgel?
banneryear1868@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Would be cool to have a remote control device that mechanically opens/closes the tubes, built-in security layer for ensuring only you can unlock it, auto-lock, etc. If the tech-bro venture capitalists weren’t weirdos about spreading their genes around maybe this would be a thing.
Agent641@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Your subscription to fertility has expired. Please renew your credit card details in the next 90 days or your balls will be perma-locked.
banneryear1868@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s actually super easy to root your ball controls and run a minimal install, check out some of the projects on github. Compatibility is like 90% there.
Saint_Bandit@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
You want… Smart balls? Smart tech can’t even make toast right but you want it in your balls!!!
banneryear1868@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I mean I would only accept the FOSS balls option (or lack thereof), but yeah I want like a diabetes insulin pump but for balls. Could add a bunch of quirks and features in there too like a hardening protective mesh and RGB. Why stop there just go full tech-penis too.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Too lazy to search for it, but there was some swiss dude who literally had mechanical valves implanted into his sperm ducts.
banneryear1868@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Truly a pioneer
tslnox@reddthat.com 4 months ago
And Zydrate comes in a little glass vial
nostradiel@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Will you take the pill, honey, or do I have to mash my balls again? And remember, if you won’t, you’re on top…
Yeldarb12@toast.ooo 4 months ago
No offense but I’m going to wait until it has a good track record on people first.
Death_Equity@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You will have to wait decades to be able to establish a good enough sample size and history to have confidence in it being safe and effective.
chitak166@lemmy.world 4 months ago
As a man, I always laugh when I see other men excited about the prospect of becoming sterile.
Andvari@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Totes Scrotes!
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 months ago
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.
TIMMAY@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Ive also avoided making kids for the last decade or so but I was born with personality-based contraceptives so I dont know that it counts
HerrBeter@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Andrew Tate apparently made money selling his, if you want to try it as a business
Shou@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You are comparing sperm count and egg count as if the amount it an issue. For eggs not to be released, you end up nuking estrogen production. Hormonal BC for women is a lesser evil when comparing it to unwanted pregnancies and health conditions like endo, but you are underestimating just how bad constantly taking the pill for women is.Vasectomy is the way.
sixCats@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 months ago
Vesectomy is the way if you know for sure that you never want children - they aren’t reversible like birth control are and shouldn’t really be considered reversible at all because there’s a very real risk of them not being so
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 months ago
That’s because it is. If you have a 95% reduction in number of eggs, then your odds of pregnancy are very, very low. If you have a 95% drop in sperm count, then it’s still pretty easy for a woman to get pregnant.
Yes, taking hormonal BC is pretty bad for a number of women. OTOH, it’s a life saver for some women, like the ones that have 3.5 week periods. For women that experience adverse side effects from hormonal BC, I’d suggest IUDs. For the very, very small number of women that neither IUDs nor hormonal BC work for, I’d suggest using condoms, and avoiding states run by Republicans.
For men that aren’t sure, I would always suggest vasectomy first, or just learn to be gay (since it a choice, dontcha know, /s). If you end up changing your mind, be a foster parent.
frezik@midwest.social 4 months ago
The problem I’ve read with Vasalgel is that they had trouble getting enough voulenteers to test it. Trials are dragging out. It does appear to work otherwise.
I was holding out on it for a while, but ended up getting a vasectomy.
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I thought that it, and the vasclips, had both failed in the larger clinical trials at achieving birth control rates that were even on par with hormonal BC. This is what I’m remembering from like seven or either years ago though (and internet search is such garbage now that I don’t know if I could find the sources I’m remembering).; there might be a different formulation now, or something.
Riccosuave@lemmy.world 4 months ago
While you make a valid point about the difficulty of instituting the technology, it is in no way “vaporware” as you suggest. This is something that continues to be actively researched for use in humans, and has already been effectively used in primates. You can see just one example of this below, but there are others.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28191316/
I am supremely confident that this is going to become a widely utilized technology in the near future as our understanding of chemical polymer synthesis continues to improve. While it may not be today or tomorrow, it is certainly the area to focus money for continued research and development.
I’m happy for you that you found a solution that works for you, but there are 8 billion other people on this earth. Many of them may want a reversible solution (and/or) suffer serious ill-effects from hormonal or mechanical female birth control (IUD). More options is always better, and with the rise of authoritarian bans on reproductive healthcare in the United States, this is all the more reason to focus positive attention on emerging technologies that have the opportunity to protect the reproductive health of women.
Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Unfortunately no. The issue is. I worked under my supervisor that has been at the forefront of this tech for years.
The issue is men refuse to get the injection or any contraception that has side effects. Time and again the biggest obstacle for both men and women was that the procedure was not 100%.
Therefore the side effects could be permanent. Same as women but for some unknown reason both men and women were not happy to take the risk with a sperm reduction system that could fail in 2 ways.
It doesn’t stop sperm or it doesn’t stop stop sperm. The risks were too great that it wouldn’t be reversible or it wouldn’t be as effective as condom or pill. Both bring 99%.
tsonfeir@lemm.ee 4 months ago
They should be offered the opportunity to freeze their sperm at no cost if they have the vasectomy, as an insurance policy. Then the risk is null.
cooopsspace@infosec.pub 4 months ago
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.
Syntha@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
From what I understand the problem with Vasagel isn’t it’s efficacy but with the reversibility. You can remove it from the tubes easily but the sperm might not perform as before.