Birth control options for men are significantly scarce in comparison to those for women. The most commonly used options for men include abstinence, condoms, outercourse, vasectomy and withdrawal (“pulling-out”). The list for women is too extensive to include all options but is not limited to birth control implants, pills, shots, sponges, vaginal rings, cervical capping, IUDs, diaphragms — the list goes on.
A healthy male between the ages of 18 and 45 is said to have a sperm count of 39 MILLION or more per ejaculation in two semen samples. Healthy females release only one egg per month. Knowing these figures, it seems counterintuitive to provide more options to control lower amounts of reproductive cells, although that is exactly the case today. It has been the goal of some researchers to provide men with easier more effective methods of birth control, but the road to safe contraception has been a winding one.
Researchers tested a new hormone birth control shot on 100 men ages 18-45 with healthy female partners between the ages of 18 and 38. 95.95 of those men experienced suppress sperm count, exhibiting a loss of 38 million sperm per ejaculation in two samples. 94.8 percent of continuing users were able to maintain fertility following the treatment.
Although the research yielded such miraculous results, it was concluded early due to troubling side effects, specifically depression and other mood disorders. Other side effects include acne, pain near the injection site and erectile dysfunction.