The Revolutionary Birth Control Method for Men

Wow. The entire premise of the article aside, for me the idea that <i>medical treatments</i> can be made with <i>physics</i> and not <i>medicine</i> was an incredible, incredible revelation.<p>This man (not a doctor!) has invented a method to neutralize sperm in a way that would never have occurred to me. He uses the most basic principles of physics (magnetic charge) to neutralize sperm!<p>Realizing that sperm is negatively charging, he simply coats a short section of the inside of the vas (tiny tube going from testes to the penis, located in the scrotum) with a positively-charged polymer. As sperm travels in this coated tube, the ionic attraction causes damage on a cellular level in the sperm, the pull effect effectively destroying the sperm "tail" and preventing it from fertilizing a female but without hormonal/medical methods!<p>For me, as an engineer, this was a true revelation.

<i>In its report, the WHO team agreed that the concept of RISUG was intriguing. But they found fault with the homegrown production methods: Guha and his staff made the concoction themselves in his lab, and the WHO delegation found his facilities wanting by modern pharmaceutical manufacturing standards. Furthermore, they found that Guha’s studies did not meet “international regulatory requirements” for new drug approval—certain data was missing. The final recommendation: WHO should pass on RISUG.</i><p>Is this an example of why health care is so incredibly expensive in this country?<p>Do these "modern pharmaceutical manufacturing standards" actually buy us extra safety?

The world has been promising male birth control for decades now and the techniques (There are several that all work at almost 100% and are fully reversible) are proven (numerous long term trials, I can think of two from a decade ago off the top of my head, one in Washington state and one in Australia, in their final stages, with fewer side-effects, complications and failures than female birth control) and much more effective than female birth control (100% in most cases). I've been reading about it actively since I was 15 and now I'm 30 and I'm still reading about how it's 5 years away. I want this so bad it hurts, but no one is bringing it to market.<p>The problem is there isn't (enough of?) an incentive to actually put out these treatments. I guess the money just doesn't compare to female birth control.

Looks like the future of space, medicine, and technology belongs to the countries that have not yet hobbled themselves with lawyers and bureaucrats to the point that something must be perfect if it is to exist at all.

For those who aren't interested in seeing a picture of a scrotum being operated on, the technique described is a polymer that is injected into the vas deferens. As sperm pass the polymer, their membranes and tails are damaged. The technique can be reversed using a solvent.

A 100% effective, low maintenance, reversible birth control method could have an incredible effect on the future of the species. I'm guessing the benefits of fewer unwanted children will be incredible. The possible downsides include a dangerously low birth rate and forced temporary sterilization, but I think the long term effects will be very positive.

I have nothing to add except that reading the description of the process made me feel physically uncomfortable.

I would sign up for this procedure in a heartbeat, but it still doesn't get around the (albeit not perfect) STD protection condoms can provide. If this takes off, people probably won't wear condoms most of the time, and the number of people being diagnosed with STD's will skyrocket.

Will this cause an increase in sexually transmitted diseases? If straight men don't have to wear condoms for pregnancy-avoidance, and straight men &#38; women don't like to pretend/boast that they've had lots of sex (unlike gay couples), then the pressure to go bareback (without a condom) increases and there might be more HIV/AIDS/STIs

Yet another illustration about how broken the health care system is in the US. Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are disincented to produce cost effective treatments, it's really an outrage. Medicine in the US is geared towards costly treatments that are needed on a recurring basis; we're inundated with marketing and profit driven medicine. IMO, the NIH and FDA should be promoting a research-rewarded system that promotes cost effective and potentially society-shifting treatments such as RISUG.

&#62;“If it’s no longer a crazy Indian idea and it’s something that’s working in India and in rabbits in Ohio and in the first 20 men in the US,” Lissner says, “then there’s got to be a point where there’s just no excuse for a Gates or a Buffett not to get on board.”<p>The words "crazy Indian idea" hit me as offensive at first. But I guess that's just the way the world perceives us and its up to us to change that.

All On One Page: <a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/ff_vasectomy/all/1" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/ff_vasectomy/all/1</a>

There should be a NSFW in the link title.

seeing any kind of operation done in that region I come to think a condom is actually a pretty good idea

Now if only they could invent something revolutionary for treating infertility...

It should warn me "DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE HAIRY BALLS"

Bonus points for reading the whole article without flinching!

The video is excruciating. Make sure you watch it.

hello NSFW.

I have a two-year old daughter. I want more kids, not fewer. If I had known how amazing raising a kid was, I would have started sooner. Smart people need to bring more smart people to the world.

This is going to change the world ... this is by far going to have deepest sociological impact (good &#38; bad) on the society ... because many men will use this secretly without telling their partner to avoid having kids ... which eventually will bring enormous decrease in population ...<p>Now someone should come out with novel technique to avoid STD without using condoms ... combination of these 2 techniques will be VIOLA !!!!! :)