Male contraception — a growing business with game changers?
October 20, 2024
A group of curious-looking people gather around Maxime Labrit in Paris at an event on reproductive rights, where he lays out colorful silicon rings. What looks amusing at first carries a deeper purpose. Labrit — a trained nurse — has set out to revolutionize male contraception and the potential is huge.
More than two billion men* of reproductive age live on our planet. Every second pregnancy is unintended. The burden often falls on women while men are left with few options to control their fertility.
But here's the good news: There are many solutions out there, and some you can even buy today. The tricky part: It takes time to certify that these methods are safe. But even for those who are skeptical, there is something promising in the pipeline.
How big is the trend?
More and more men show interest in taking control of their fertility. Global studies, supported by organizations like the Gates Foundation or the United Nations, reveal a growing appetite for novel male contraceptives.
What products are available? Beyond condoms and vasectomy
Scientists are working on more than 100 innovations, according to the Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI). Some methods stop sperm from developing. Others focus on preventing sperm from swimming, so they can’t reach the egg. Others again block sperm. Certain techniques could stop sperm from fertilizing eggs.
Currently, there's a hormonal product that is advancing further than any other. So far, efforts to develop new contraceptive methods for men have repeatedly failed. The NES/T gel that one applies to the shoulder is to date the most advanced in clinical trials leading the race.
Also among the most promising products is Contraline's gel that blocks the tube that carries sperm, and YourChoice's non-hormonal daily pill. They are currently being tested in humans but would not be available on the market for another five to 10 years.
A number of products available to buy right now use a special approach: Warmth.
"You don't have to wait. You can practice male thermal contraception right now", says Labrit who invented the silicon rings out of personal frustration. After falling in love with a French woman she told him to take responsibility for his sperm. Together with his parents, he developed the prototype of the Andro-Switch ring in their garage.
New approach: Thermal contraception
The principle seems almost too simple: Sperm production is sensitive to temperature. The ring lifts the testicles close to the body, allowing them to absorb the body's natural warmth. Raising the temperature by a few degrees can lead to temporary infertility.
While Labrit is traveling around Europe — in a sailing boat — to spread his mission, similar products are popping up in other places. Thermal underwear is being sold in France featuring a heating patch. The testes are enveloped in a layer of warmth, disrupting sperm production.
How do you know it works?
A key way to monitor fertility is through seminograms (semen analysis), which assess sperm quality. To address this, Dr. Rolf Tobisch, a German researcher at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (University of Applied Sciences), developed a home seminogram — a device that allows users to test their fertility from the comfort of their home.
However, getting this product to market has been a challenge for Tobisch. Medical certifications take a lot of time and are expensive and the major pharmaceutical companies are not willing to invest.
He also developed a thermal contraceptive device designed to heat the testicles for just 10 minutes a month, claiming it can temporarily make men infertile. Despite the potential, Tobisch has struggled to secure sufficient funding.
The problem is medical certification
"I thought about giving up so many times," Tobisch told DW who is certain that is invention works. Investors typically expect a return within a year, but the medical certification can take several years, requiring extensive lab research, clinical trials, and approval from health authorities.
As a last resort, many inventors brand their products differently — as sex or wellness toys. The thermal underwear is marketed as a comfort item, and Labrit's silicon ring is sold as a "decorative object straight from Uranus" on the website Thoreme.com.
Tests on humans must assess whether each product is safe individually. But for decades there has been research showing that it can be. For example, three different studies tested whether raising testicle temperature by 1-2 degrees Celsius (33-35 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least 15 to hours a day affects sperm production. The couples relied on thermal contraception as their only way of birth control. No pregnancies occurred for a combined total of more than 500 menstrual cycles.
Are big pharma companies holding the products back?
There's a joke running in the industry that male contraception has been 10 years away for the last 50 years. According to Logan Nickels, chief research officer at the Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI), getting products to market requires the backing of big pharmaceutical companies. But instead of leading the charge pharma giants are letting startups take the risks.
The last major push happened over a decade ago. German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer tested a male contraceptive on humans, and it was found to be both "effective and with tolerable side effects."
Despite this success, Bayer stopped all research into male fertility control. In a statement to DW, Bayer explained they doubted the product would be a commercial success. Abbvie and Pfizer said they are not in the male contraceptive business and did not comment on plans to invest in it. Other companies DW reached out to — like Johnson & Johnson or Teva — had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
"It's not men that are the issue, it's the entrenched systems resisting technological and social progress," says Franka Frei. The German journalist and author wrote a book in which she outlines that male-dominated research and profit-oriented health industries fail to address the need for gender-equitable birth control.
What's next for the contraceptive market?
Rising global interest from men signals that change is on the horizon, one product at a time.
It's also not just about availability, but also about acceptance. "It takes only one product to pave the way," says the MCI's Nickels, highlighting the potential domino effect. He thinks men need to have heart-to-hearts with trusted peers to figure out if these new products are right for them.
With the global contraceptive market projected to reach $44 billion (€40 billion) by 2030, several countries are investing in this future. The funding is largely driven by non-profit organizations and academic institutions, particularly in the United States but also India, Brazil and Australia.
Back at the recent event on contraceptive rights in Paris, participants were optimistic about the issue and the future: Male contraception represents a form of empowerment. It's not just about sexual or financial freedom — it's about giving billions of people the ability to shape their lives and their family planning.
*people with male reproductive anatomy.
Edited by: Rob Mudge