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Male contraceptive pill: Will the new birth control be available in the UK and how does it work?
27 March 2019, 12:01 | Updated: 27 March 2019, 12:02
What is the male contraceptive pill? How does it work? When will it be available?
The male contraceptive pill made headlines recently after it passed initial tests.
The first round of testing on the pill showed that the contraception causes “no significant” side-effects.
But how does the pill work? And when will it be available?
How does the male contraceptive pill work?
The male contraceptive pill works in a similar way to the female contraceptive pill.
The pill works by suppressing levels of hormones that drive production of sperm and testosterone.
It also has a compound similar to testosterone which fills the dip in the male hormone.
When will is be available in the UK?
According to Dr Wang, who is a lead researcher at LA BioMed – the company working on the male contractive pill – we could be waiting another 10 years until the male pill is available to the public.
The pill recently underwent a trial which found it appeared to work with no “significant” side-effects.
The recent tests were carried out to test the safety of the pill instead of its effects against stopping pregnancy.
The side effects reported from the test were similar to side effects caused by the female contraceptive pill, including low-level erectile disfunction, acne, headaches and a reduced sex drive.
