DO WE FINALLY HAVE A REAL REVERSIBLE MALE CONTRACEPTIVE?
Our Team
1/14/2025
DO WE FINALLY HAVE A REAL REVERSIBLE MALE CONTRACEPTIVE?
This is what, according to an article by Derek Bagley in Endocrine News, the audience at Endo 2024 believed after presentation of an abstract about a male contraceptive gel that suppressed sperm production faster than anything else proposed before. Supposedly the Boston Convention Center “was abuzz.”1
The treatment was presented as a Phase 2b clinical trial of a gel applied to both shoulders, which contained segesterone acetate (called Nestorone, also an ingredient of the Annovera vaginal birth control ring) and testosterone. A total of 222 men completed at least three weeks of daily treatment with the gel, which contained eight milligrams of segesterone acetate and 74 milligrams of testosterone. Study subjects applied the gel once daily to each shoulder blade (to reduce the risk of exposing the gel to others).
The gel induces an endocrine feedback loop between the pituitary and the gonads, which involves secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary that causes the testes to make testosterone and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Segesterone acetate stops the pituitary from secreting LH and FSH, shutting down the production of testosterone. Local testosterone concentration in testes is higher than in blood; when testosterone falls below a threshold, the testes stop producing sperm. But men would like to maintain a normal libido and muscle mass, so the gel replaces testosterone in blood, though without it accumulating in the testes.
As the article also noted, researchers see male contraception as a women’s health issue since women are the ones who get pregnant if they don’t have a contraceptive, and women don’t always have the best experiences with contraceptives.
REFERENCE
1. Bagley D. Endocrine News. October 2024. https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/shouldering-responsibility-could-a-male-contraceptive-gel-be-a-birth-control-game-changer/
DO WE FINALLY HAVE A REAL REVERSIBLE MALE CONTRACEPTIVE?
This is what, according to an article by Derek Bagley in Endocrine News, the audience at Endo 2024 believed after presentation of an abstract about a male contraceptive gel that suppressed sperm production faster than anything else proposed before. Supposedly the Boston Convention Center “was abuzz.”1
The treatment was presented as a Phase 2b clinical trial of a gel applied to both shoulders, which contained segesterone acetate (called Nestorone, also an ingredient of the Annovera vaginal birth control ring) and testosterone. A total of 222 men completed at least three weeks of daily treatment with the gel, which contained eight milligrams of segesterone acetate and 74 milligrams of testosterone. Study subjects applied the gel once daily to each shoulder blade (to reduce the risk of exposing the gel to others).
The gel induces an endocrine feedback loop between the pituitary and the gonads, which involves secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary that causes the testes to make testosterone and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Segesterone acetate stops the pituitary from secreting LH and FSH, shutting down the production of testosterone. Local testosterone concentration in testes is higher than in blood; when testosterone falls below a threshold, the testes stop producing sperm. But men would like to maintain a normal libido and muscle mass, so the gel replaces testosterone in blood, though without it accumulating in the testes.
As the article also noted, researchers see male contraception as a women’s health issue since women are the ones who get pregnant if they don’t have a contraceptive, and women don’t always have the best experiences with contraceptives.
REFERENCE
1. Bagley D. Endocrine News. October 2024. https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/shouldering-responsibility-could-a-male-contraceptive-gel-be-a-birth-control-game-changer/
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