Male birth control has long been a scientific oddity; there’s been lots of work on it, but there hasn’t been a workable product. Now, there might just be one that’s cheap, non-hormonal, and simple to use… if it can get to market.
It’s called Vasalgel, and it’s currently in trials with baboons. Vasalgel is basically a polymer injected into your testicles that acts as a bouncer; sperm can’t get into the club known as Somebody Else’s Orifices. Want to let them back out to play? The polymer can be flushed out with an injection.
That’s a bigger deal than you might think, especially for women. If you ever want to lay awake nights worried about something, just look up the side effects of any form of birth control. That stuff is freaking terrifying. That said, though, there are a few roadblocks here, and they’re not what you might think.
First of all, not a lot of people enjoy the idea of having a needle anywhere near their bits; the ladies just have to deal with that crap because scientists seem too damn lazy to come up with any better alternatives. Secondly, fewer dudes are interested than they really should be; a similar technology, RISUG, has been struggling for years to find enough volunteers for clinical trials, even if that is something of a cultural issue. We’ll let Veep sum up the attitudes at work here.
That said, while it may be a niche product — and there would still be a risk for STDs that would require condoms for casual sex — it would be a valuable one. Fingers crossed that Vasalgel will find enough volunteers to test it out. If it can, it’ll be on some markets as early as 2017.
Via The Daily Beast