A birth control pill for men has been found to be 99% effective in preventing pregnancy in tests.
There’s a major caveat to that news: the tests were on mice. But scientists at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society shared the news that their non-hormonal male contraceptive pill prevented pregnancy in the rodents twithout obvious side effects. Human trials are set to follow later this year.
After decades of discussion around male contraception, there is growing hope that a male pill could relieve the ongoing contraceptive burden on women.
Surprisingly perhaps, a YouGov survey in 2018 found that a third (33%) of men would theoretically consider taking the pill if it was available.
And in 2019, at least one male pill, which contained hormones to stop sperm production, passed initial human safety tests.
This latest news certainly has social media talking. Though plenty are excited at the prospect, both men and women took to Twitter to express their doubts, too – either about taking the pill or trusting someone else to take it.
Here’s what people have been saying about the developments.