British researcher looks for new methods of controlling male fertility
Male contraceptives the cutting edge of reproductive research the last few years
(Dr. Christopher Barratt)
A leading English researcher is working on developing a new male hormonal birth control pill that would diminish the chance of pregnancy by making sperm swim slower in the vaginal tract.
Dr. Christopher Barratt is Head of the Reproductive Medicine Group at the University of Dundee. I Zoom called him earlier this week to discuss his research and its potential implications for men and women trying to plan family size or prevent pregnancy.
“The safety bar is very, very high,” Barratt said. “So that's probably the one of the biggest challenges to overcome in developing drugs.”
For women’s birth control, the Pill revolutionized sexual expression and practice when it was introduced in the 1950s. However, questionable testing practices and side effects associated with it have lingered over its development since its inception.
Paul Vaughn’s 1970 book The Pill on Trial explains how research commenced. Sanger had dreamed of an oral contraceptive for years, but she couldn’t find someone to develop it. It wasn’t until she met Gregory Pincus, a physiologist based in Massachusetts, that the aspiration became reality. Pincus, along with another experimentalist, John Rock, were the primary researchers who developed the pill. Sanger had doubts about Rock because of his Catholicism, which was something that she distrusted throughout her life.
Pincus and Rock couldn’t get human testing approved within the United States, and so they looked for alternative locations to do it. They eventually selected Puerto Rico because of the island’s intense poverty and corresponding desperation among women to control their fertility. According to Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano’s book Colonialism, Catholicism and Contraception: A History of Birth Control in Puerto Rico, they would have many test subjects willing to participate.
While Pincus and Rock knew some of the negative side effects, they didn’t inform the women properly before the subjects gave consent. That violated the basic principle of human testing for medical advancements. Three women died during the tests, but no autopsies were done. So, it’s unclear whether the birth control research caused it or not. Mortality was high in Puerto Rico as a result of the squalid living conditions. So other causes may have been the reason.
Currently, condoms and vasectomies are the only proven methods that have limited male fertility. Currently, there is a clinical trial on testosterone gel. The Male Contraceptive Initiative, an organization that focuses on this matter, raises funds for this research. MCI focuses on non-hormonal therapy, though, because they felt the other avenue had sufficient resources for experimentation. Among the treatments MCI is involved with is an injectable gel that goes into the Vas Deferens or sperm duct. It prevents sperm from coming out during ejaculation
Dr. Barratt’s method works differently. It could be developed to make a sperm not move when it was in the female tract. Dr. Barratt’s research is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Patients, I think, now want more contraceptive choice basically,” Barratt said. “And you know, there's a lot of work ongoing throughout the world on trying to develop contraceptive choice.”