The Columbia University team working on a nonhormonal oral method, a vitamin A receptor antagonist drug, will be one of about 8 labs funded by a new National Institutes of Health program. Congratulations! Next item on their wish list: funding for a study of the drug’s effectiveness in monkeys.
An additional 2 RISUG study sites have opened, bringing the total to 6 of the planned 10. Congratulations! What’s next: we’re impatiently awaiting the publication of results from a follow up study. Doctors evaluated sixty-six men who have been using RISUG as their main method of contraception. Sneak preview: from preliminary results, it looks like none of the men had viable sperm even after 5-7 years of RISUG use.
Currently there are about 1.8 million young people under 15 on the planet, with another 40 being added every minute. How many of them (and how many of us) will have a new contraceptive option? The answer depends on keeping moving forward on this work!
This month brings to an end both the year 2008 and regular monthly Male Contraception Update newsletters. We’ve come to this decision for two main reasons. First, we’ve accomplished a substantial amount of what we set out to do. Second, we are both ready for new horizons and new challenges.
From Elaine Lissner, director of the Male Contraception Information Project:
When I founded MCIP, I wanted to let men and women know about promising but maddeningly neglected male contraception research; help them convince the powers that be of the urgency of their demand; and get new nonhormonal male contraceptives to market. Well, two out of three are done! With radio pieces, articles everywhere from Time to Newsweek to the BBC, and even an appearance on the Geraldo Rivera show, most people now say “I’ve heard something about that!” instead of “Huh?!?” or “Men would never use that!” when you tell them about male contraception. And policymakers have responded to your loudly-voiced demand, stepping up efforts and making development of new male contraceptive options a top priority.
From the start, my passions were RISUG (the 10-year shot), ultrasound (potentially 10-15 minutes of non-invasive waves for 6 months of contraception), and the DIY heat methods. Though much of the activism and awareness-raising work on these methods is done, there is more I can do, and have been able to do recently, wearing a new hat instead of my activist one. Through a new involvement in the foundation world, we’ve finally found funding to put the 1970’s and 1980’s ultrasound research to the test! A respected research team is working on it now to see if they can reproduce the results, and we should have the answer at the end of next year.
RISUG research, for its part, requires patience. Little by little the clinical trial in India is opening new sites and enrolling new men. And when the Indian government publishes results of its followup study (of men in the last trial) and does a planned study to try out reversal in some of those men, foundations will be eager to join in moving this method forward. Why are those studies crucial? Because reversibility in humans is key to making this method appealing to the several billion men worldwide who are not finished having children or don’t like the permanence of vasectomy. RISUG reversal (and repeated reversal after re-injection) has been published in monkeys, but not humans, so far.
That leaves the third goal: actually having a new method in the clinic! I’d really like to see a new choice or two by now, after all this work, all the press coverage, and all your letters. But science is painfully slow. It will be a matter of many people working together for several more years. But as long as it stays a priority and gets the new money that’s planned, I think we’re on the right path.
I am grateful for all the wonderful people I’ve come into contact with in my 13 years working on male contraceptive development. Keep spreading the word!
From Kirsten Thompson, director of the Male Contraception Coalition and MaleContraceptives.org:
I began this work in 1999, when I found Elaine Lissner’s 1994 overview paper on new male contraceptive methods. My curiosity led me to update her research with the help of the National Library of Medicine. I decided to share what I’d learned via a website, MaleContraceptives.org. The response was amazing – men and women from countries all over the world sent letters, asking when these new methods would be available. Using the MaleContraceptives.org survey and letter writing features, we communicated this need for new male methods to researchers and policymakers.
Much has changed in these 10 years of work. Researchers, doctors, and policymakers now have a growing awareness of the need for better family planning options. Policymakers and grant-making foundations have responded with increased interest. Researchers are talking to each other and staying aware of each others’ work. A big part of our work is done!
I have less time for running MaleContraceptives.org now that I am the fulltime project coordinator for the Long-Acting Reversible Contraception project at the University of California, San Francisco. This project is exploring what keeps doctors from prescribing, and women from using, highly effective and long-lasting methods such as intrauterine devices and the single-rod implant. These methods are convenient, nearly as effective as sterilization, completely reversible, and popular in other countries, but they’re barely used in the U.S. The information we learn from this project may be helpful when it comes time to introduce a new long-lasting and reversible male contraceptive.
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Looking for the latest on a particular method? Take a look through the past Male Contraception Update newsletters, all archived for you at IMCCoalition.org/newsletter. Three versions are available: Researcher, family planning provider, and general public.
We’ll be in the process of updating the MCIP and MaleContraceptives.org sites over the next several months, but in the meantime, newsletters are the place to turn for the most up-to-date information. They’re also the only place you’ll find several years of male contraception publications, all summarized and categorized.
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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.
