NBC News

New Male Birth Control Pill Is Safe, Researchers Say

Even though the researchers said they were “very excited” by the results, they haven’t been testing it long enough to show whether it decreases sperm production

The latest effort to come up with a male birth control pill has found a formulation that appears to be safe, researchers at the University of Washington said.

NBC News reported that Stephanie Page and her team are testing dimethandrolone undecanoate, a tweaked version of previous failed efforts to develop a male pill. Possibly the best hope yet for a non-permanent male contraceptive, it's being developed with funding from the National Institutes of Health.

But the experimental pill has at least one of the same problems that plague female birth control pills: it caused the men to gain weight. And after just a few weeks of testing, it’s also not yet clear how well it works.

Even though the researchers said they were “very excited” by the results, they haven’t been testing it long enough to show whether it decreases sperm production, and they haven’t shown whether it stops couples from conceiving.

Contact Us