The Pill: should men share the pain?
“Fantastic news,” said Anna Rhodes in The Independent. More than 50 years after the launch of the Pill, scientists have finally created a male equivalent. In a one-year trial involving 320 men, the hormone injection had a 96% success rate in preventing pregnancy. But here’s the rub: the trial has been halted because 20 of the men said they were not prepared to put up with the side effects, which include acne, mood swings and muscle pains.
“Sounds familiar, right?” Of course it does, said Hayley Spencer in Stylist. These are all listed among the “minor” side effects of the combined pill for women. Others include breast pain, vomiting, migraines, depression and weight gain. Oh, and let’s not forget the rarer but more serious risks, such as deep vein thrombosis, breast cancer and cervical cancer. For half a century, women have been risking ill health and even death while carrying the burden of contraception alone. Yet men can’t even put up with a few spots? It’s high time men “stopped shirking”, agreed Deborah Orr in The Guardian. Although the male pill wouldn’t be suitable for casual sex, since it wouldn’t protect against STDS, it could be a huge blessing in long-term relationships. If one partner found the side effects of hormonal contraceptives unbearable, or wanted to give his or her body a break, the other could take up the mantle. It would create “more equality, empathy and understanding between the sexes” – qualities often sadly lacking in matters of reproduction.
To be fair, three-quarters of the men involved in the latest trial said they wanted to carry on using the contraceptive, said Andy Extance in The Guardian. Worldwide, “plenty of men are interested in a male pill”: well over 50% according to one survey. And scientists have always been keen: Gregory Pincus, who co-created the Pill, first started working on a male equivalent in 1957. Yet pharmaceutical companies have never properly funded these projects. Old-fashioned attitudes prevail among the alpha males at the top. As one former pharmaceuticals executive recalls: “At board level it was only middle-aged white males. I tried to explain how important it could be, but they never got further than saying to each other: ‘Would you do it?’ ‘No, I wouldn’t do it.’”