The Long and Winding Road

It takes two to tango. So how is male birth control going to impact relationships? How is it going to change communication, sex, and understanding? We’ll talk to some couples using male birth control in clinical trials, and others who see the future in male contraception.

Would you trust your man to use male birth control? Women have a very different relationship with birth control than men do. And a male birth control option may not be all that appealing to women, who have to bear the risk of pregnancy. We talk to three women who think there’s opportunity in male contraception, and are looking forward to the time when they can share in the role.

If you build it, will they come? If you make a male birth control, will men use it? What do they care about? What sort of things do they want to see in a contraceptive? Three men who all have their own motivations, ideas, and opinions.

Making a drug is hard, not to mention expensive. But a male birth control? It’s something nobody has ever done before. Getting a drug to market is a big lift for a pharmaceutical company who has resources and connections. Male birth control hasn’t had either of those yet. So how are we going to do it? And even more – where are you supposed to start?

There’s a race to be the first male birth control out there. And the people running the race are all taking a different route. The human pipeline is just as important as the drug development pipeline. Some people work at a university, some at a startup, and some are even at a hospital – treating men with experimental contraceptives right now.

Male birth control won’t necessarily be a daily pill. It won’t necessarily even be hormonal. How in the world do you actually turn off fertility for men? How in the world do you make it reversible? The contraceptive options of the future can look very different than the options of today.

In the 1950’s a birth control pill was being tested in men. And it worked. But it never made it to market because of one unexpected reason. Men have had condoms and vasectomies as their only options for centuries and The Pill was released nearly 60 years ago. Why aren’t there more options for men? Why have we been 10 years away from a male pill for 50 years?

In the 1950’s a birth control pill was being tested in men. And it worked. But it never made it to market because of one unexpected reason. Men have had condoms and vasectomies as their only options for centuries and The Pill was released nearly 60 years ago. Why aren’t there more options for men? Why have we been 10 years away from a male pill for 50 years?

Nearly 50% of pregnancies are unintended. Science has intended to get male contraceptives on the market for decades now. What’s happened? Why don’t we have The Pill for men yet? Intended covers male contraception, learning from the past, talking to the researchers of the present, and the users of the future. Join us for a journey, and find out where male birth control is - and when you'll be able to use it.