Over the past few weeks members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees have decided how much money to give to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is a crucial funder of contraceptive research. Scores of you took the time to let your congress members know how important this is to you, and they’ve listened!
The Senate Appropriations Committee budgeted $461 million for family planning and reproductive health programs, which is $137 million above the President’s request and about $20 million above the 2007 level. This is a good sign that Congress considers USAID’s work important. It allows room for research to be maintained, rather than be cut severely like in recent years, if some of the money is set aside for research rather than sent out to field offices.
Why does this matter so much? Because USAID is one of only two funding sources for contraceptive development in the US. Last year, an external review stated that USAID’s departure from this field would have devastating impacts; yet influential officials advocated getting USAID out of the research business entirely. Thankfully, the new head of USAID seems to value research more than the previous one did.
Your letters were very helpful, and got the attention of Congressional offices involved in this issue. We hear that there may be Congressional action soon to defend research funding at USAID, and USAID has also let the affected organizations know that it is listening carefully to them on this issue.
Now that the subcommittees have written in the funding and the Appropriations Committees have approved it, we will monitor the bill’s progress as it moves forward in the Senate, the conference committee, and signing process.
Read more:
• Committee Passes Fiscal Year 2008 State And Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill
Press release from the Senate Appropriations chairman’s office
• Planned Parenthood Applauds House Vote to Support International Family Planning
Press release from Planned the Parenthood Federation of America
Many of our readers are familiar with the do-it-yourself heat methods, in which sitz baths or special underwear can provide free, readily available male contraception to those men dedicated enough to read up and follow through. However, not everybody knows about ultrasound.
In the 1970s, a researcher at the University of Missouri tested a nearly ideal male contraceptive. It was cheap, effective, and painless. It didn’t require surgery, and there were no drugs involved. When applied to the testes, a few minutes of sound waves – the same kind used by physical therapists to help heal injuries – provided six months of contraception.
Does it work? Scientists always want to see results from two independent labs before they get too excited, yet no one has duplicated those initial studies. Now a team has come together to try ultrasound on rats using the latest equipment and tests. The new ultrasound team includes top-notch university and research institute male contraception specialists. Last month they won funding from a newly-active foundation, and the study is now beginning. The team hopes to report very preliminary results — basically, whether the ultrasound had a contraceptive effect — at the “Future of Male Contraception” conference in Seattle this September.
Read more:
• See the review of ultrasound in MCIP’s heat methods section
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More about Bayer’s decision to quit research on hormonal male contraception; includes quotes from MCIP’s director.
Big pharma not interested in 'male pill'
Chemistry World, 22 June
Hormonal male contraception development at Edinburgh University in Scotland has been hit by the lack of funding from drug companies.
Hopes for Male Pill hit by lack of cash
Scotsman, 2 July
“With male birth control's possible ability to ease these problems, it's time for women, and especially men, to change the way they look at contraceptives. And if women and men are to continue to share responsibilities in the workplace and at home, they must also share the responsibility of birth control.”
Viewpoint: Why we need male birth control
The Daily Texan, 20 June
Researchers found that a high semen level of macrophage migration inhibitory factor, or MIF for short, was a good predictor of a man’s reduced fertility. The researchers make the news wondering whether administering MIF might work as a form of male contraception.
Key to male infertility
Science Daily, 2 July
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Editors
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.
Kirsten Thompson, Director of the Male Contraception 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.
