Male contraceptive pill study receives massive £1.2million funding boost

Scientists researching male contraceptives have been given a funding boost by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.

Which means a male pill could well be on the way…

Researchers from the University of Dundee were given a whopping $1.7million (£1.2million) to develop suitable compounds which can be used in a male contraceptive pill or method.

As we all know, most contraceptives currently are used by women from IUD’s to injections and implants.

But, for many, hormonal options are not perfect and have a huge number of side effects ranging from lowered libido to weight gain and increased likelihood of depression.

Plus, non-hormonal copper coils are known to be painful to insert for some women.

Men who want to have more control over their reproductive ability must currently use condoms.

Efforts to find an effective new contraceptive method have been unsuccessful due to a number of reasons including poor understanding of human sperm biology and a lack of studies on the key functions of sperm, reports Tyla.

And, there have also been difficulties due to the lack of an efficient system which screens the effects of available drugs.

So, Dundee scientists have created a mini parallel testing system which uses a speedy microscope and image-processing tools to precisely monitor the fast movement of sperm cells.

Male contraceptives could help to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

It’s thought that as many as 121million unwanted pregnancies occurred between 2015 and 2019 – and they’re three times more common in the poorest regions of the world.

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Chris Barratt, Professor of Reproductive Medicine in Dundee University’s School of Medicine, explained: “There has been no significant change in the field of male contraception since the development of the condom.

“This means that much of the burden of protecting against unwanted pregnancies continue to fall upon women.

"We hope to address that inequality and we have already made progress, thanks to our previous round of funding received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

He added: “By the end of this two-year period, we would like to have identified a high-quality compound that we can progress to the first stages of drug development.

"That would be a significant step forward for the field and could potentially be the key that unlocks a new era in male contraception.”

A study on male birth control was pulled in the last decade due to safety concerns by an independent review board.

So, here’s hoping that Dundee’s latest research will have effective and safe results!

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