Why are there no long acting reversible contraception (LARC) options for men?

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LARC options include the copper IUD, progestogen-only intrauterine system (IUS), progestogen-only injectable contraceptives and progestogen-only subdermal implants.

There are no LARC options for men, only a permanent vasectomy –

Is there a biological reason it’s easier for women to have these options?

In: Biology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It is just down to differences in biology.

Women’s reproductive cycles can be interrupted by “tricking” the body into thinking it is pregnant and thus preventing eggs from being released for fertilization. As this is a very natural process for women who are pregnant, it is easy to replicate with few serious side effects.

Men have no such process where sperm production is interrupted, so it isn’t as easy to stop. Hormonal changes to stop sperm production wreck male physiology, so they aren’t used. The only effective method is a vasectomy, which doesn’t actually stop production, but just disconnects the “tubes” that allow sperm to exit.

There are some LARC options for men in the testing stage right now, but they are still a few years away.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Vasectomies are quite reversible, so in a way they’re similar to an IUD that never expires.

Women have a hormonal cycle that can be interrupted, while men just keep making sperm with no end in sight and no built-in stopping mechanism.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is one in India known as Risug, attempts to make it available in america are going very slowly as condom makers and monthly birth control pills make more money and require return customers. Vasalgel is the name of the american version and the cost is tiny as the solution injected to the vas deferens (teste tubes) costs less than the syringe used to inject it. it lasts about ten years.

source: [https://www.parsemus.org/projects/vasalgel/](https://www.parsemus.org/projects/vasalgel/)

Anonymous 0 Comments

> Is there a biological reason it’s easier for women to have these options?

Yes: it’s a lot easier for a man to impregnate a woman than it is for a woman to be impregnated.

Women can only get pregnant for 7 to 10 days of their menstrual cycle. Also, even if a woman has sex at the time of ovulation (when you have the highest chance of pregnancy) there’s only a 30% chance of getting pregnant and that chance decreases the longer it is after ovulation.

Men, on the other hand, produce millions of sperm per day and produce it every day of the month. Female birth control works by just tricking the body’s cycle and making it think it’s pregnant so ovulation doesn’t occur, but there’s no equivalent for male reproduction because there’s no point where the body naturally stops sperm production.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Women have regular monthly cycles controlled by the release of hormones. by disrupting the cycle, it’s possible to prevent pregnancies pretty easily. by contrast, men don’t have a cycle, so they have to be inhibited permanently, which is more difficult.

there was a study done a couple years back into male contraceptives which was cancelled, because it was considered to be dangerous to the participants after one of them committed suicide and another was permanently unable to produce sperm afterwards.