dasein Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 There will likely be the option of reasonably effective male birth control pills in the near future. Some women's groups have spoken out against them stating their reason that the pills are currently not nearly as reliable as the female pill. What do you think about male contraception pills? For guys, would you use them? would you use them if they had the same types of side effects as female pills? Would you wait til the guinea pigs tested them out before using them? If you used them would you stop using condoms? Or use that and condoms both? Women, what do you think, would you still expect condom use in addition to the male pill? general thoughts? Stop using female pills and alternate? Use both together? For both, do you think this will be a good thing or a bad thing in society? Will it help or harm gender relations? Would you want your partners to wait and see before using them or be one of the early users?
ChessPieceFace Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 Seems a lot easier to stop ONE egg than BILLIONS of sperm. They should have spent their research money designing a better birth control pill for women that is closer to 100% safe.
Author dasein Posted November 7, 2011 Author Posted November 7, 2011 Well I don't know the science of it, but the pill has been around some time, so wonder to what degree they could improve it without unwanted or dangerous side effects.
sweetjasmine Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 Women, what do you think, would you still expect condom use in addition to the male pill? Yes. Stop using female pills and alternate? Use both together? Use both together, ideally. I'm not a fan of some of the side effects from my birth control pill, but I'd prefer using both together. Alternating seems highly impractical. It takes time for a woman's body to adjust to hormonal birth control, so going on and off of it would be silly. Going on and off the male equivalent may not be problematic, so I can't comment on that. For both, do you think this will be a good thing or a bad thing in society? Decidedly a good thing. The more control people have over their reproduction, the better, IMO. Will it help or harm gender relations? I don't know what you mean by gender relations, but I think it could potentially prevent a lot of emotional, complicated situations by giving men another option in preventing pregnancy and adding another back-up. Would you want your partners to wait and see before using them or be one of the early users? It'd be entirely up to him. It's his body, and different people have varying comfort levels when it comes to trying out medication, especially medication that's completely new on the market.
Nexus One Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 The male contraception pill is one of Bill Gates' projects, among many other great inventions like a new more powerful type of nuclear reactor. I think that guy is awesome. I'm in favor of the male contraception pill. I know guys who have been tricked by their girlfriends. Their girlfriends told them they were taking contraception pills, but they weren't. One guy I know got his girlfriend pregnant that way and then before the baby was born she emigrated to another country. He will probably never see the child. Female contraception pills are not full proof, there's a failure rate, just like with condoms. With male contraception pills the overall failure rate can be decreased. So if you really do not want kids, then you can combine different types of contraception to decrease the chance of pregnancy. Perhaps one day scenes like these will then be something of the past: http://bit.ly/tLzNoz
Cypress25 Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 Women, what do you think, would you still expect condom use in addition to the male pill? Yes. I always use a condom no matter what, as backup to my pill and as protection against STDs. general thoughts? Stop using female pills and alternate? Use both together? I would continue taking my pill, but it would be nice to have the additional protection of the male pill. You can't alternate, the female pill is only effective if you take it every day. For both, do you think this will be a good thing or a bad thing in society? Will it help or harm gender relations? Would you want your partners to wait and see before using them or be one of the early users? It can only be a good thing. Men don't have to take it if they don't want to, but it will be nice to have the option. And since men are always complaining about condoms, the male pill would allow them to take some responsibility for birth control, instead of putting 100% of the burden on the woman.
carhill Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 What do you think about male contraception pills? For guys, would you use them?If I could manage the side effects (can't be worse than a damn gall bladder), I'd much rather take a pill for temporary contraception than wear a polyurethane bag all the time or have some doctor cut up my vas deferens. However, the latter is likely what I'll do should the need arise and no other solution present.
aj22one Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 What do you think about male contraception pills? For guys, would you use them? would you use them if they had the same types of side effects as female pills? Would you wait til the guinea pigs tested them out before using them? If you used them would you stop using condoms? Or use that and condoms both? Yeah I'd use them, depending on what the side effects were and all the findings of the studies associated with them. I hate condoms. Thankfully my gf uses protection and I don't have to wear them.
ChessPieceFace Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 I wouldn't use them. Medical science doesn't give a !^@$ about men. I'm sure they will cause testicular cancer with an incidence of 10-20% and we won't find out about it until 50 years from now.
Cypress25 Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 I wouldn't use them. Medical science doesn't give a !^@$ about men. I'm sure they will cause testicular cancer with an incidence of 10-20% and we won't find out about it until 50 years from now. LOL, you do realize that most medical researchers ARE men? And this pill won't be available until it's been thoroughly tested. Suppose it had the exact same cancer risks as the female pill, would you take it then? Or would you rather have women take the risk instead?
Cracker Jack Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 If the side effects aren't much of an issue, I'd definitely use them. I've always thought about the idea of birth controls for males, so it'd be cool to see something like this come into fruition.
Author dasein Posted November 7, 2011 Author Posted November 7, 2011 LOL, you do realize that most medical researchers ARE men? And this pill won't be available until it's been thoroughly tested. Suppose it had the exact same cancer risks as the female pill, would you take it then? Or would you rather have women take the risk instead? Well women are the primary consumers of medical care regardless of who the researchers are, so I see some merit in CPF's worry. The amount of research dollars spent on prostate cancer for example are paltry compared to breast cancer. I probably won't use the male pill until it has been out a good few years, has nothing to do with expecting women to take more risk.
grkBoy Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 I have no issue with the idea of a male birth control pill...but now I get concerned about STDs. It's amazing how many times I hear of women saying they got an STD from a boyfriend (or now ex-boyfriend). The guy had been barebacking (and pulling out) on all the women and either avoided or refused to get STD tests...often times keeping his little secret until he nails said woman and thus she ends up infected. I've heard some women are against male birth control because they think men all over will take it regularly and thus remove the "power" from women in some sense, but I think that's ridiculous. I still think condoms are a better deal, but that's me. Can you imagine if we woke up one day and all the "20%" men are all carrying STDs? So we'll see the women complain how all the hot guys are "diseased". Plus we'll see all the "80%" guys complain not only how they're constantly rejected, but also how all the hot girls have STDs.
Emilia Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 I don't like condoms but of course sometimes have the need to use one because of the chances of STDs. My only issue with the male pill is trusting the guy to take it regularly or at a specific time. If I'm assured of that then no worries.
oaks Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 My only issue with the male pill is trusting the guy to take it regularly or at a specific time. If I'm assured of that then no worries. That would be my concern, too. One a day is easy to get right, but one a day at the same time every day is easy to get wrong. But if scientists/doctors can make it work effectively and safely (eg as effective and safe as the pill is for women - yes I know there are risks with that) then it would be great to have more options for preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Jynxx Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 The male contraception pill is one of Bill Gates' projects, among many other great inventions like a new more powerful type of nuclear reactor. I think that guy is awesome. Not true. Gates has an interest in Terrapower, which is booking success in using deplepted uranium (an up till now hardly usefull result of the production of enriched uranium that is needed to operate most powerplants) as its source of energy. A classic reactor can generate about 1 GW of power, their reactor is supposed to generate about 1% of that. My only issue with the male pill is trusting the guy to take it regularly or at a specific time. If I'm assured of that then no worries. Goes both ways obviously. Add to that you have the chance to get an abortion if you get pregnant because he forgot his pill, your boyfriend can't force you to get an abortion if you forget yours but he still has to pay for the kid his entire life.
make me believe Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 For me it would depend on how it worked. I don't take the pill because I don't want to pump artificial hormones into my body & if the male bc pill worked in a similar fashion I would be on the fence about it. Obviously if my hubby wanted to take it that would be his choice (and I think he'd probably want to try it out at least), but I wouldn't necessarily encourage him to take the hormonal route. I also worry about birth control pills being used as the only form of protection when people are having casual sex. It seems like a lot of people think "safe sex" = "safe from pregnancy" and don't think about STDs.
Queen Zenobia Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 I also worry about birth control pills being used as the only form of protection when people are having casual sex. It seems like a lot of people think "safe sex" = "safe from pregnancy" and don't think about STDs. Yeah this is true. But this is why we need to tell people that until you know that you're exclusive and clean, keep using condoms. I would hope that this is common sense but clearly it isn't.
carhill Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 A male oral contraceptive could be a potentially more convenient item to lower pregnancy risk for the male, compared to a condom, but those wishing STD protection, either additionally in a LTR with clean tests or when engaging in casual sex, would still need condoms or similar to effect that goal. TBH, I didn't 'think' about STD's in the realm of discussing an oral male contraceptive because my style is long periods (at least six months) between partners, providing quantifiable 'space' for testing, sex only in LTR's and STD tests prior to engaging in sex. If I didn't trust my partner's recitation of their history and the validity of their lab tests, I wouldn't be with that person at the point of sexual relations. For those who follow a different path, and/or wish additional protection, wrapping it up will likely continue to be a highly recommended strategy, irrespective of an oral male contraceptive. Myself, I see it (the male 'pill') as a potentially welcome option to the ones already on the shelf for men.
zengirl Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 Seems a lot easier to stop ONE egg than BILLIONS of sperm. They should have spent their research money designing a better birth control pill for women that is closer to 100% safe. The BC pill for women is never going to be more safe, really. If used correctly, the pill is above 99% effective; that's a remarkable number for medication. And, as for actual safety, it's the hormones themselves---the change to the body itself---that is most unsafe in BC. Actually, most of the newer forms of hormonal BC have proven LESS safe, but instead have greater ease (such as getting a shot once every three months, which is less effective (maximum) AND less safe, but was created to make it 'easier'). The BC pill for men seems remarkably similar but, so far, has less side effects. Also has less time to assess, but the greater issue will be (for men) with retaining fertility rather than the escalated cancer rates (theoretically; both may be an issue, though---as I said, the studies remain inconclusive at this time). I actually don't see how the number of eggs v. sperm has much to do with it, when you look at it biologically. Women, what do you think, would you still expect condom use in addition to the male pill? general thoughts? Stop using female pills and alternate? Use both together? For both, do you think this will be a good thing or a bad thing in society? Will it help or harm gender relations? Would you want your partners to wait and see before using them or be one of the early users? It'll be 5 years at least, looks like. So, who knows by then what state I'll be in re: babies. But: I HATE BC pills, and I have quite annoying side effects from them, so if the male pill was equally effective and reasonably safe, I would definitely encourage my BF to try them out. It looks that the biggest risk in male pills, from the data I've seen, would be potential low fertility/infertility, which for my current BF and I would work out fine (if we get married, he'd likely get a vasectomy, as we wouldn't have kids). I would still use condoms at the beginning of any relationship, but with my BF, I would certainly trust him, just as he trusts me. However, I wouldn't really want the BF to be in the first wave of users. That's a bit scary. So, it'd likely never come up, as if we're still together I cannot imagine it still being an issue by then. As to society in general, I think it's positive not to put hormonal BC all on one partner, as it's a burden women have had for half a century now. I am happy this is even being developed.
eatNrM Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 Hey, I could dig it. Though this would likely lead to even lesser condom usage. But I am concerned about a couple things though. How would it affect your testosterone levels...and most importantly: Will I still be able to get it up?? If not, then this is uselsss.
Queen Zenobia Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 Hey, I could dig it. Though this would likely lead to even lesser condom usage. But I am concerned about a couple things though. How would it affect your testosterone levels...and most importantly: Will I still be able to get it up?? If not, then this is uselsss. Perhaps that's what makes it so effective...
ShannonMI Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 There will likely be the option of reasonably effective male birth control pills in the near future. Some women's groups have spoken out against them stating their reason that the pills are currently not nearly as reliable as the female pill. What do you think about male contraception pills? For guys, would you use them? would you use them if they had the same types of side effects as female pills? Would you wait til the guinea pigs tested them out before using them? If you used them would you stop using condoms? Or use that and condoms both? Women, what do you think, would you still expect condom use in addition to the male pill? general thoughts? Stop using female pills and alternate? Use both together? For both, do you think this will be a good thing or a bad thing in society? Will it help or harm gender relations? Would you want your partners to wait and see before using them or be one of the early users? I'm all for it. It's time for men to be responsible for birth control. It's usually the woman's job and it can be annoying. Condoms are the ONLY birth control method men have. And most men hate condoms. They would much more prefer their women get on the pill or some other form of birth control, so they don't have to wear a rubber. My only worry is hopefully he would remember to take the damn thing.
eatNrM Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 I'm all for it. It's time for men to be responsible for birth control. It's usually the woman's job and it can be annoying. Condoms are the ONLY birth control method men have. And most men hate condoms. They would much more prefer their women get on the pill or some other form of birth control, so they don't have to wear a rubber. My only worry is hopefully he would remember to take the damn thing. hey hey! easy..this is a very large step for us:(
ShannonMI Posted November 7, 2011 Posted November 7, 2011 hey hey! easy..this is a very large step for us:( Yeah I know. All you've had to worry about are rubbers. Big deal. And most of you hate wearing them. It's time to step up boys!!!
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