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First ever male contraceptive pill discovered

A team of scientists have developed a male oral contraceptive that is set to change the world of contraceptive for good.

The contraceptive pill has been found to be 99 percent effective in mice and didn’t cause observable side effects compared to the current contraceptive pill in the market.

“We wanted to develop a non-hormonal male contraceptive to avoid these side effects,” said Md Abdullah Al Noman, who works in the lab of Professor Gunda Georg at the University of Minnesota, Euro news reported.

Human trials set before end of the year

The drug is expected to enter human trials by the end of this year. The findings, unveiled at the American Chemical Society’s spring meeting marks a major step forward in making contraceptive more available and accessible to men too who for the longest have been locked out of the contraceptive shenanigans.

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While there are scores of options for women to control their menstrual cycle, there currently exist only two effective options available for men: condoms or vasectomies.

“Scientists have been trying for decades to develop an effective male oral contraceptive, but there are still no approved pills on the market,” said Noman.

How does it fucking work?

The contraceptive pill works by targeting a protein called retinoic acid receptor (RAR) alpha. Retinoic acid is responsible for sperm formation, and embryo development. Retinoic acid needs to interact with RAR-alpha to perform these functions, and knocking out the RAR-α gene in male mice makes them sterile, without any obvious side effects, the scientists discovered.

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So, the scientists developed a chemical, known as YCT529,  to interact specifically with RAR-alpha, and not two other related receptors, in order to minimise potential side effects.

YCT529 was then given orally to male mice for 4 weeks and dramatically reduced sperm counts and was 99 per cent effective in preventing pregnancy, without any observed adverse events.

Here is the best news though, unlike vasectomies whose reversal surgery is expensive and not always successful this new contraceptive pill is reversible. The mice were able to father pups again 4 to 6 weeks after they stopped receiving the compound.

However, the results on mice are no guarantee that the drug could be safe and effective in humans. The team of scientists has partnered with a private company, YourChoice Therapeutics, which aims to start human trials in the country by the third or fourth quarter of 2022.

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