Whereas women have access to a variety of birth control, men are limited to just a few choices. Now, there are plans to commence a clinical trial for a gel that inhibits sperm production when applied 

daily.

The US National Institutes of Health & the Population Council are ready to run a clinical trial for a promising new form of male birth control. Four hundred and tenty couples from the UK, Sweden, Italy, Chile, Kenya, & several medical facilities in the US will test out the contraceptive, the moment the proper permissions have been acquired.

This birth control comes in the form of a gel that is applied to the shoulders once a day. The gel contains progestin, which holds back the production of sperm, & testosterone, to counteract reduced levels of the hormone.

A pilot trial found that the contraceptive was able to lessen sperm counts to one million per millimeter or less — which is in general accepted as the level at which sperm production is being suppressed — among 89% of participants. It is thought that noncompliance might explain some portion of the remaining 11 %.

In 2016, a method of male birth control administered through a bimonthly injection proved to be effective. But, a clinical study was brought to an end ahead of time when twenty subjects started to experience side effects including mood changes, erectile dysfunction, & pain. One participant found that their sperm levels were still subnormal 4 years after receiving the injection.

One of the biggest complicatedness in creating new forms of male birth control is establishing a way of suppressing sperm production without causing off-putting effects related to a lack of testosterone. This is why a pill is not feasible — men would have to take quite a lot of capsules a day, or the hormone would leave their body too speedily.

A gel application allows testosterone to enter the bloodstream at a stable rate, without inadvertently promoting sperm production in the testes. As a result, there’re high hopes that this technique could succeed where others have failed.