Men's pill, vasectomy, injections: the history of male contraception

The male contraceptive pill for tomorrow?This is in any case what the Belgian MP Margaux de Ré would like, whose proposal, which aims to raise awareness of the sharing of contraception between men and women and to encourage research on male contraception was voted in the end of September in2021.

Male contraception has since given the front of the stage, thus reaping the debate.According to the deputy, today, in heterosexual couples, 68% of women use a means of contraception, for 33% of men, of which 60% cite the condom, on average.However, men are fertile 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.Women, on the other hand, are only a few days a month, she recalls.

But where are we exactly?Does the male pill exist?Here is the story of contraception, on the men's side.

The condom, the first means of contraception

It was in 1880 that the first latex condom as we know it today, the most used and widespread male contraception was produced.Following the medical advance in the fight against sexually transmitted infections (IST) and the invention of the contraceptive pill, the condom is forgotten.

But the arrival of the AIDS virus in the 1980s puts it back on the agenda, in an improved version.

First clandestine vasectomy

The so -called “classic” vasectomy, a method of male sterilization and a minor operation which consists in blocking the defending channels carrying sperm, was first used in the context of eugenist projects, in the 1930s, through laws that imposedSterilization in several European countries, according to Élodie Serna, doctor in contemporary history.

Subsequently, it is used as a contraceptive method, clandestinely.The first known clandestine vasectomies took place in Austria in 1927.

Vasectomy without scalpel, authorized in France

It was not until 1974 that the vasectomy without a scalpel (vasectomy without scalpel) was born thanks to a Chinese doctor, Li Shunqiang, before being introduced in Canada by Doctor Michel Labrecque in 1992.It reduces the risks of complications.In France, it has been authorized since 2001.

Although there is surgical intervention whose aim is to be the permeability of the deferential channels, vasectomy must be considered as a permanent operation, because the success of the opposite operation is not guaranteed.

Hormonal injections

Since the end of the 1970s, there has been hormonal contraception for men validated by WHO, little known.Doctor Jean-Claude Soufir, Andrologist at Cochin Hospital in Paris, is one of the first to have looked into the subject and to have prescribed it, following groups of words born in the years 1975-1978.

In France, he is the only one to administer it, explains Pierre Colin, founder of Adercom, association for research and development of male contraception.It is not administered in the form of a pill, but in the form of a weekly injection of Énanthate de testosterone.

In 1990, Doctor Roger Mieusset, an Andrologist of the Toulouse University Hospital, developed a method of thermal contraception for men: a underwear that makes it possible to go up the testicles near the body in order to reduce the production of spermozoa.But it is not available on the market, neither in pharmacy, nor in the trade.Its use requires medical follow -up.

A male pill already tested in Belgium

Male contraception in the form of a pill has already been tested in Belgium, as part of a clinical trial supervised by Doctor Herman Tournaye.For this doctor, the first results on efficiency, reversibility and the side effects found deserved to go further, but no phase 3 was started, he confided in RTBF.

Today, a contraceptive gel for men is being studied in a dozen research centers in the world.But phase 2 will not end before December 2021.

Was this article useful to you?Know that you can follow news in the my news space.In one click, after registration, you will find all the news in your favorite cities and brands.