Breaking news for the next decade: a male contraceptive pill could be available in ten years, according to the New York Daily News.
Though that predicted day is a long ways away, scientists recently cleared one hurdle by creating genetically infertile mice, compromising neither the sexual nor the overall health of the animal.
Researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Leicester in England believe the genetic principles that induced mice infertility could be used to create a chemical equivalent, which would lead to a pill for mice, and eventually a pill for humans.
The key for Sabatino Ventura and his fellow researchers was to block certain proteins responsible for sperm transport through the sex organs.
"We've shown that simultaneously disrupting the two proteins that control the transport of sperm during ejaculation causes complete male infertility," Ventura said.
Most encouragingly, blocking the two key proteins halted reproduction "without affecting the long-term viability of sperm or the sexual or general health of males," said Ventura. "The sperm is effectively there, but the muscle is just not receiving the chemical message to move it."
Previous attempts using hormones and manufacturing "blanks" did affect other aspects of male sexual behavior such as libido and performance, and also had irreversible consequences on fertility, according to the Daily News.
Ventura reasoned that a non-hormonal drug that blocks the targeted proteins should also come with no side effects and should only be active for as long as the pill lasts.
"It would block the transport of sperm and then if you're a young guy and you get to the stage where you wanted to start fathering children, you stop taking it and everything should be okay," Ventura told ABC.
"It would be like an oral medication probably taken daily just like the female contraceptive pill."
