Me, man, I wear a contraceptive panties, and it works

For almost three years, I have been using the contraceptive panties, also called heated underwear, a method of male contraception.I wear a underwear 15 hours a day, tailor-made, which allows to go up my testicles from the scholarships to the pubis.Their temperature then increases from 34 to 36 ° C.This temperature increase inhibits the formation of sperm.The technique is reversible: if I stop wearing the heated panties, I will be fertile again after a few weeks.After these months of experience, I found many advantages there.For me, but also for women, who should not be the only ones to wear the contraceptive charge.

« Le stérilet me fait mal, j’ai dû l’enlever, ce n’était plus possible », « Je ne supporte pas la pilule, ça dérègle mon cycle hormonal et souvent j’ai des nausées. » Ces phrases, je les ai entendues des centaines de fois de la bouche d’amies, depuis que je suis au lycée.Just like studies revealing a higher risk of cancer under different hormonal contraceptions. La contraception masculine est-elle la solution ?

A method still not very accessible

I am a guy: no doctor has ever mentioned contraception with me.And I would not have come to mind to ask the question.The sexist standard wants women alone to carry the contraceptive charge.In the collective imagination, there is no male method other than the condom.

In March 2017, while I lived in Rennes for my studies, I fell during the environment week on an information stand of the Sexclame association.I was then presented for the first time the heated panties.There were two possibilities: making it yourself, or being prescribed by Dr. Mieusset, of the Toulouse University Hospital, who has been working on it since the 1980s.My girlfriend also told me about it.The solution seemed good to him: no pharmacological treatment to be taken every day, no particular side effects.Me too, I was convinced.

I returned to Strasbourg, my city of origin, to continue my studies.For 3 or 4 months, I documented myself on the internet.No one knew this process around me.In December 2017, I made my decision: I wanted to be prescribed, to have a medical follow -up in order to be certain of my sterility.I found the number of Dr. Mieusset secretariat on the Toulouse CHU website.Difficult to grant our time jobs: I only got an appointment for May 2018.Without money, I went to self -stew.If I had not been a student, if I had not had access to the Rennes environment week and its militant networks, I could never have been prescribed the heated panties.Today, this one remains little accessible: Dr. MIEUSSET is the only doctor to prescribe him and to ensure medical follow-up.Local workshops also allow you to learn to make it and use it, but without ensuring medical follow -up.

« From there, I was contraceptive »

During my consultation, the doctor verified that I had no malformation and took my measures.A month later, I received a copy of contraceptive pants in my mailbox.The first day, I had to wear it for 2 hours.The next day, 4 hours, the next day 6 hours and so on until 3 p.m..I was exchanging regularly with Dr. Mieusset, by email.Concretely, there is a hole in the pants to pass the penis, and the skin of the scrotum (of the scholarships).Thus, the testicles are forced to go back.You must then make a knot so that the opening of the pants is tightly tight, and that the testicles can no longer pass.They are then kept at the pubis level.

Wearing the contraceptive pants made me feel no pain.Aside when I tightened the knot too much.This could lead to slight irritation of the skin of the scrotum.However, I quickly found the right dosage so that the knot does not hurt me anymore.So I only felt a discomfort, a feeling that I was unaccustomed to feeling.But nothing comparable to what some friends were testified about copper IUDs or the pill.When I managed to wear it 3 p.m. in the same day, without observing any particular difficulty, Dr. Mieusset launched the manufacture of four other heated briefs with the same measures.I was going to be able to wear it daily.

The briefs were taken care of by the Dr. Mieusset research laboratory, and the social security consultations.I didn't pay a penny.I finally started to wear it every day from October 2, 2018.The doctor had prescribed a spermogram before I started to wear the heated panties.I then had 63 million sperm per milliliter of sperm.In the week of December 17 to 22, I did a new test, after two and a half months of Slip port.I then had 1.45 million sperm by milliliter.The fertility threshold is 1 million.I was on track.The early February 2019 exam was the right one.I then only had 210,000 sperm by milliliter.The only ones that are likely to fertilize a egg during a sexual intercourse must be mobile. 10 % l’étaient.

From there, I was contraceptive.During the following tests, my sperm were fewer and fewer, and less mobile.The last one I made at the time of writing these lines dates from November 12, 2021.The spermogram did not detect any sperm.

The pharmaceutical industry turns off

The heated panties are now part of my life.It is not more restrictive than a classic underwear.In my experience, he never dysfunctioned.Dr. Mieusset did not wish to answer my questions for writing this article.He cannot communicate his results because they have not yet been published in a scientific journal.But the technique is already considered reliable by the French Association of Urology.And more than one hundred people have already used this method, according to the Association for the Research and Development of Male Contraception (Ardecom).Only an unwanted pregnancy took place due to improper use.To be sure of my sterility, I realize the prescribed spermograms.Without sperm, I am sure that no fertilization can take place. Toujours selon l’Ardecom, « toutes les personnes ayant utilisé cette méthode et qui ont ensuite souhaité procréer y sont parvenues sans difficultés ».

In three years, I talked about it to several dozen people. Les femmes et les personnes non binaires ont toujours été enthousiastes : « C’est fou que ça ne soit pas plus diffusé, ça paraît très sûr », « J’aimerais bien que mon mec s’y mette, mais c’est pas gagné. » Une étude publiée en novembre 2021 révèle que sur un échantillon de 379 femmes, près de 70 % sont favorables à laisser les hommes gérer la contraception du couple, mais environ 78 % ne se sentent pas suffisamment informées sur le sujet.

Among guys, heated panties is less unanimous. Beaucoup trouvent ça « intrigant » ou « bizarre ». Lorsqu’ils apprennent qu’il faut le porter 15 heures par jour, ils considèrent que c’est « énorme ». Certains « ne veulent pas toucher à leur engin » ou « ont peur de ne plus réussir à bander », m’a-t-on dit.In short, they are, in the vast majority of cases, far from taking the process of carrying it.I only know one person who has decided to wear the contraceptive panties.

I have the impression that if this method is poorly accepted, it is also because it remains little known.According to journalists Stéphane Jourdain and Guillaume Daudin, authors of comics contracepts, if the pharmaceutical industry has never invested in male contraception, it is because companies believe that there is no market.Without money to create cohorts of thousands of men who test the contraceptive panties, difficult to have the necessary step back.According to the Action and Research Group for contraception (boy), 5,000 to 10,000 people use thermal contraceptions in France today.Many use the contraceptive ring.The latter has the same function as heated panties and can be ordered on the internet.Men wishing to use it can present it to their general practitioner to organize follow -up thanks to spermograms.When I inquired three years ago, this possibility did not exist.We therefore progress, very slowly.