As a male, would you be willing to reverse roles with your female counterpart, by popping a pill everyday as a form of birth control? Or do you feel that because of the limited options available to men, that it should be on a women's to-do list? A survey conducted in 1997 by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, an American health research and education organization, found that more than 66% of males and females believed that men should have more responsibility when it comes to contraception.

Whether you are pro or anti though, researchers have spent an extensive 40 years in developing what will soon be released as the 'male contraceptive pill'. 

Researchers at Edinburgh University’s Centre for Reproductive Biology have finally found a way to suppress daily sperm production whilst maintaining normal testosterone levels. You can imagine the complexity of this since men emit millions of sperm per ejaculation, while women only produce one egg per month.

The pill which contains desogestrel, a synthetic hormone that is the main component in the female pill, as well as the male hormone testosterone, blocks the production of sperm whilst maintaining everything that makes a man... a man.

Of the 66 participants that took part in the clinical trials, all the participant’s sperm counts dropped to zero, which means the pill had a 100% efficacy rate. The pill would be more effective than the condom which has a 14% failure rate. It is even more effective than the female pill which has a one percent failure rate.

Of these 66 participants, each one was able to breathe a sigh of relief when, after the clinical trials were performed, each man's sperm count returned to pre-study levels within 16 weeks. The male birth control pill also allowed for increased pleasure during intercourse as no condoms were required. Because of its potential to replace the condom as a form of contraception, many health professionals fear that its introduction into the market would increase the spread of HIV and other STD’s.

Used in a long-term monogamous relationship, husbands, boyfriends and partners could be doing their partners a great favour. The only side effects exhibited by the male pill was slight weight gain in a few of the clinical trial participants. If you compare this to the female pill, many women suffer with more serious complications such as blood clotting, nausea, headaches and even dizziness.

When it comes to the cost of this ingenuity, the price will not be determined until a later date when it is market ready, but the developers believe it will be in the same price range as its female counterpart, between R100 and R150.

Gone are the days of women having to take all the responsibility. In the future, women will be the ones peeking their heads out from the bathroom door to their male counterparts, asking sweetly: “Honey, did you take the birth control pill?”

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