Trials is on the go in Britain for the first male contraceptive pill. It is a promising medication, one that puts more power in men’s hands to prevent unwanted pregnancy with high reliability and, so far, few reported side effects. The trials attempt to answer a basic medical question: is this drug safe and effective? But the producers are no doubt wondering about something else: will men take it?
The overwhelming share of responsibility for preventing pregnancy has always fallen on women. Throughout human history, women have gone to great lengths to prevent pregnancies they did not want, and to terminate those they could not. Safe and reliable contraceptive methods are, in the context of how long women have been trying to interrupt conception, still incredibly new. However, measured by the lifespan of anyone reading this article, they are well established, and have been a normal part of life for millions of women around the world for many decades.
To some extent, and if only for obvious biological reasons, it makes sense that pregnancy prevention has historically fallen to women. But it also, as they say, takes two to tango – and only one of the partners did all the work. Fortunately, things are changing: thanks to generations of women who gained unprecedented freedoms and planned their families using highly effective contraceptive methods, and thanks to men who shifted their own gender expectations and became more involved partners and fathers, women and men moved closer to equality than ever before.
Especially among politically progressive couples, it is now standard to expect a male partner to do his fair share of household management and child rearing (whether he actually do is a separate question, but the expectation is there). However, what men generally cannot do is carry pregnancies and birth babies.
And so, for years, women have also been asking when modern medicine will allow men to do their part to at least plan for those babies, and to prevent misplaced or unwanted pregnancies. Now that the moment seems close, a male contraceptive will be another test of whether heterosexual men are actually willing to accept the shared responsibilities of adult life, or whether they are content to let women do all the work of controlling when and whether they reproduce. .
Few inventions in modern history have changed life and society as much as the birth control pill. The ability to prevent unintended pregnancy, and thereby major life-changing interruptions in education, work, finding a partner, and just about every other aspect of adult life, has changed opportunities and outcomes for women worldwide. In nations where women were first able to get their hands on the birth control pill, gender equality improved greatly: women rose on college campuses and in the workforce; age of first marriage has increased and the average number of children has decreased; women and their children lived longer, healthier, better educated lives; and national economies benefited from the many more women in the workforce.
These patterns have now been replicated worldwide, and the links between access to contraception and better outcomes in education, economics, gender equality and health are so well established that increasing access to contraception is now a basic cornerstone of any development agenda.
Contraceptive options have also expanded beyond the pill, to patches and implants and injections. IUDs are one of the most effective forms of contraception, and together with better access to other contraceptives, this has meant that more women today than at any point in human history are better able to chart their own lives: to go to school going, getting married love, living alone, adventure, work for pay, living independently.
The ability to plan one’s family has resulted in children also doing better than at any other point in history. They live longer, are healthier, are more likely to be in school, are less likely to suffer from a host of ailments. Men have also benefited greatly from the contraceptive revolution, and not just because it’s much easier than ever to have sex for fun and pleasure. Countless men have avoided unintended or unwanted fatherhood, been able to mate or marry out of love rather than obligation, benefited financially from partners who share in earning the household income, and benefited socially and intellectually from living in a society where women and men are simultaneously teachers, professors, leaders, colleagues, culture makers and friends.
But when it comes to procreation – to do it, or to prevent it – we have asked almost nothing of men. For 75 years now, women’s bodies have borne the burden of preventing pregnancies. These are women who have set their alarms to pop pills, gritted their teeth through the usually-unmedicated and often-brutal pain of IUD insertion, and sometimes dealt with the side effects from contraceptive hormones: mood swings, weight gain, bleeding, headaches, nausea, and more.
To be clear, many women experience no side effects, or only mild side effects that disappear quickly. But many women suffered through severe discomfort because there were simply no other reliable options.
And many of us wondered when exactly science would catch up to rapid gains in gender equality, and men would be asked to take on a fraction of the responsibility for planning families.
Yes, there are condoms. But this thousand year old technology – which, by the way, is not a male contraceptive, but rather a tool that both parties use and that both affect their physical experience – has its limitations.
Condoms are incredibly effective and an excellent one-stop solution to radically reducing the risk of both sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancies. But especially for monogamous couples who are less concerned about STIs, condoms can be a pain. They interrupt intimacy. Many people feel they make sex less physically enjoyable. And they only work if you use them right, which means you should always have one on hand. It’s no wonder that a whole lot of people have preferred the convenience of a pill.
The other option for men: vasectomy. This is an option more men must make use of, especially when they are done having children. Women’s bodies take so many hits when it comes to preventing pregnancies and then carrying them, giving birth to babies and feeding them; the least men can do is get some snipe. In fairness, though, many people — women included — balk at even minor surgeries, worrying about procedures that, while often reversible, aren’t guaranteed to be so.
Men, like so many women, may well spend the first decade or two of their lives of reproductive age trying to prevent pregnancy, then change course and welcome it, then go back to preventing it. And they deserve more options than they have.
The male pill currently in trials is not the first attempt to make a contraceptive for men. However, it is the first one that promises not to have significant side effects. As it turns out, many of the things women routinely put up with to prevent pregnancy – mood swings, weight gain – are simply intolerable for the fairer sex.
Good thing most men can’t get pregnant – it doesn’t sound like they can take it. But if this pill is approved, at least they will have a greater ability to be equal participants in their sexual and romantic relationships, and greater say over their own reproductive futures. This is something women have fought for for generations.
And if this drug is approved, women will gain a lot of useful information about the men in their lives, and especially those with whom they have romantic relationships: do those men believe they have an equal responsibility for pregnancy prevention, and are they willing to act accordingly ? And if not, are those men with whom women should want to share any part of their sexual, romantic or reproductive lives?
