Intra Vas Device (IVD)
Researchers are preparing for enrollment in their 90-man FDA-approved study of this long-term contraceptive. Be sure to spread the word if you know anybody in the Seattle or Minneapolis/St. Paul area who is considering a vasectomy and is interested in an alternative.
Read more about how the IVD works.
Read about the IVD trials in Seattle and Minneapolis.
To learn how to enroll in the trial, contact Janelle Antil, Clinical Affairs Manager for the Shepherd Medical Company.
RISUG
RISUG developers have approval to re-open their clinical study and enroll hundreds of additional men, but they have encountered a distressing delay: the pharmaceutical company they partnered with has not been able to manufacture enough RISUG in the promised time frame. The research team is now working to speed up RISUG production and ensure that the process meets international manufacturing standards.
Once the clinical study beings again, researchers will enroll only men living near the trial sites in India. If you live outside India and would like RISUG to be available sooner rather than later, see the opportunity for activism below.
Male Hormonal Contraception
The evidence for men and women’s acceptance of hormonal male contraceptives is growing. One recent study showed that 3/4 of Italian men enrolled in a 12 month trial of an injectable male hormonal contraceptive rated the contraceptive acceptable, good or excellent.
At a recent meeting of the European Society of Contraception, a British researcher summarized the findings of surveys of men around the world who expressed interest in a male hormonal contraceptive. He concluded: “These surveys give a clear and consistent message that both men and women want to see new male methods [of contraception] become available.”
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Male contraceptive research is starting to be covered more and more widely. This month’s big splash was a story by LiveScience reporter Corey Binns :
New Male Contraceptives Show Promise (14 June, Fox News)
While explaining how hormonal methods, RISUG, and the IVD work, the writer manages to be both entertaining and scientifically accurate. Wonder how she did it? With a little help from your very own advocacy organization, the Male Contraception Information Project! MCIP makes journalists’ lives easier by providing them with contacts, accurate information, and fact-checking. Want to see more coverage this accurate? Help us keep at it by making a donation.
A special thanks to all the bloggers who have been writing about new male contraceptives in the last month.
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Next month the Male Contraceptive Coalition will launch a new advocacy campaign to turn the heads of policymakers and pharmaceutical company executives. We will create a new space on the MaleContraceptives.org website where you can express your support for the development of new contraceptives. There will be a short survey that will start quantifying the size of the potential market for new male contraceptives. You will also be able to tell the policymakers and execs why you think new male contraceptives are important by sending your personalized story. Watch this space!
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Editors
Kirsten Thompson, Director of the Male Contraceptive Coalition (MCC)
Email: info@MaleContraceptives.org
The Coalition’s objectives are to speed the development of new male contraceptives through increased legislative and institutional support, to raise funds for applied male contraception research and development, and to educate the public about the work of the research community.
Elaine Lissner, Director of the Male Contraception Information Project (MCIP)
Email: info@NewMaleContraception.org
MCIP is entirely nonprofit and works in three areas: raising public awareness of promising nonhormonal male contraceptives, advocating increased and expedited government research, and serving as a resource for journalists who wish to write about the subject.
