(As requested) IamA man who was on a male form of birth control as an experimental drug in a clinical trial, AMA!

I was going to answer the original questions in the ama request but they have since been removed, I'll answer the ones I remember.

1) it lasted for a duration of one month and then the second study was a week long.

2) It definitely worked, I had to have my sperm levels checked before, during, and after the study.

3) It was a gel that was applied to my abdomen daily, after my shower (though future iterations, if it becomes a real thing, available to the public would not be in gel form)

4) I did not risk pregnancy even though I knew I was fine, it was a mental thing.

5) My balls do work, in fact, all my sperm levels were stronger after a week off the drug than they were prior to me starting the drug.

You mean to tell me you didn't proposition girls with "we need to have sex, for science!"

Haha I did have a girlfriend at the time, however, that would have been a solid line to use on some girls.

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Yup. If you look at the picture from Manhattan cryobank that's 7 days from when I ended the drug and you can see my sperm count, motility etc all went back up.

So...if you didn't risk pregnancy, how do you know it actually worked? Just cause sperm levels were low doesn't mean they aren't still egg seeking shitheads

The efficacy of the drug had been well established, the tests I took part in were to monitor the bp levels to see if the few that experienced elevated bp's were just anomalies or if the drug causes it somehow.

This is great! Kudos to you and your research. It will be nice for men to have similar options as women so we're not always just expected to be on some pill, shot, etc :)

Thanks! :)

I think shifting the burden of birth control from purely on women to a shared responsibility is something that should have been done long ago, luckily we're moving towards that goal now.

I wish I could upvote you a few more times for that. As a happy free man four years post-vasectomy I'm a big advocate of that procedure, but a non-barrier contraceptive for men is a fantastic option for guys in stable situations who want to have kids later on.

Exactly the case, invasive options, while they can be reversed, have a chance of not working, then you're stuck freezing sperm in case you want kids later. I'm not sure what my future holds, as it stands right now I don't plan on having kids, but if I was on this drug and I wanted to have kids, all I'd need to do is stop and bam, I'm fertile again. haha thanks for the upvote!

It's not about shifting the burden and responsibility, it's about my power and freedom to decide.

I would love to be able to control my fertility myself and not have to trust someone else with the choice.

That's very true, but by you being able to control your fertility in the first place already means you're helping shift the burden from it being solely the women's duty.

I would be honored to kill my sperm for a lady. i dunno why something like this isnt out already.

It should be, but hopefully it shouldn't take much longer.

Can't wait to shoot clean jizz.

It's an awesome feeling.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't female birth control heralded as one of the greatest discoveries for equality of women? As it allowed women to control their own sexuality and not worry about pregnancy.

I'm all for more forms of birth control I just found it odd that you'd prefer to leave it up to somebody else (which is obviously fine if you're in a long term relationship and trust your partner).

edit: More replies than expected :) I wasn't trying to criticize anything, as I said the more the merrier. There are advantages and disadvantages to all forms of contraceptives, so it would be great to have another option to choose from.

Well the way it is now, it is the women's responsibility to be on the pill, it's her responsibility to remember to take a pill each day, and go to the drug store and pay for it each month, and it isn't cheap. It's nice to be able to shift the responsibility from one person to the other, or make it a shared responsibility instead of just the women's duty. Also, there are those few examples of crazy women that lie and say they are on the pill when they're not and then they get knocked up so they could tie the guy to them (an extreme example yeah, but it happens every so often). It is just nice to have options.

That's how I was made. It definitely happens.

Eesh, that must have been an awkward confession.

Not really, my mother was batshit crazy so it's not the most offensive thing she did.

My old man just said "I married your mum because she was supposed to be fixed. I didn't want a kid, but I apparently didn't have a choice."

He stepped up though, when many people wouldn't have, so that's good.

He definitely did the right thing, some kids are planned and don't have either parent care for them, so I'd say you beat the odds if you had at least one really care for you.

Also, woman being on pill + this = no-condom SUPER birth control because the risk reduction is happening twice.

Damn right.

Plus sometimes the pill doesn't work.

And sometimes condoms don't work either. It's nice to be covered on both fronts by two types of birth control, Fort Knox security at a reasonable price.

I make sure to remind my girlfriend to take her pill every day, also offered to split the cost since it is something that benefits both of us. I would prefer it stay this way until male birth control was out on the open market for a few years and deemed safe. Most of the female birth controls have been around for a while and seem to be known to be safe. (with the exception yaz i think correct me if i am wrong)

I think it depends on who you talk to. It seems that different BC affects different women differently, although I do remember seeing lawsuit commercials about Yaz (trying to gather people for a class action suit). But splitting the cost is noble, good on ya.

You talk as though female birth control are the only form of contraceptive.

You said again in an above post the "the burden of birth control lies solely on women."

What?

What about condoms? Surely that is a form of contraceptive/birth control, one that is obviously accessible and used often by men.

Of course they aren't, condoms are the standard go-to. What I'm talking about is when you're with someone for awhile and you trust them, you know they're safe (health-wise [no STDs]) and you want to really experience them (sex without a condom) this is when a woman's birth control comes into play and they shoulder the burden. It would be nice to be able to share that responsibility.

There aren't any birth control options right now that don't have a big inconvenience factor or potentially serious side effects. Hormonal birth control can mess with your skin, your mood, it can make you tired or depressed, it can totally kill your libido and can increase your risk of blood clots, which can kill you. Some women can find a type of BC that doesn't have any adverse effects for their body chemistry, some can't. Condoms suck for guys, diaphragms and cervical caps are inconvenient and can be uncomfortable, non-hormonal IUDs make periods way heavier and can cause really unbearable cramping (I have friends who puke from their cramping pains, it can be really serious). Other methods just aren't effective enough to feel safe using them. As of right now, there is no free lunch when it comes to preventing pregnancy while having a hetero sex life. If this turns out to not cause any bad side effects for men, it would be really, really awesome.

:)

I think it's probably a good thing for anyone to be able to control their sexuality, male or female. I'm female and in a country where all contraceptives are free, so I have no problem getting my pill every 6 months, but I really don't want children at this point in time so I like the extra security that condoms provide. If a man wants two forms of birth control, his only option is to trust that the woman is on a second form.

Exactly, no harm in doubling down and making sure you don't have any issues 9 months down the line.

There is also a lot of serious side effects that have been equated to female birth control. I had a friend who had a stroke after her doctor switched her birth control. She missed a year of her life trying to learn to walk and do thing normally again.

Jeez, that is awful! I hope she recovered fully.

If mybf could use this form of birthcontrolieouldbe so excited. The problem with the pills is that is affects your hormones. I've had a few brands that just turned me into a complete mess.

If my bf could use this form of birth control, I would be so excited. The problem with the pills is that is affects your hormones. I've had a few brands that just turned me into a complete mess.

FTFY. Typing on your phone, huh? :)

Maybe it was a side effect of her current birthcontrolie, such a terrible reaction.

True, but now men have to protect themselves from women who lie and use the system to ruin a man's life.

Not all women do that obviously, but it is true that men protecting themselves adds another layer of peace of mind.

Were there any noticible side effects as there are when women are on the pill, like lowered testosterone, lower sex drive etc.?

I didn't notice any side effects. The purpose of the study was to test the blood pressure of men, because a handful experienced heightened blood pressure under the drug. My blood pressure, sex drive, etc were all pretty much the same.

Lucky! I've been on several different BCs (shot, iud, nexplanon) all with their own craptastic side effects. the side effects can be depressing. :(

I'm sure it affects different people differently, but if people were experiencing drastic mood swings or suicidal thoughts the experiment would have been cancelled immediately, they don't mess around here.

Did they measure your free testosterone before during or after and do you know where they were at? I would go on MBC today if it was available, but would really think twice about it had a measurable impact on T

The testosterone level was measured before (for a baseline), during and after. Everything returned back to normal after I stopped the drug.

So it changed while you were on it?

I'm assuming it lowered - do you know by how much?

I'm assuming it did. Since the gel was a testosterone like gel it might have been the same. I wasn't really provided with all the teal technical aspects. I have my documents but I'm not sure how to read the cryptic acronyms and numbers.

Thanks for doing this, it's really interesting as an idea. Would you consider using it or something similar in your real life? Have you spoken to any ladies about it and what they make of it?

No problem, anything to advance science! I definitely would consider using this in real life. The talk around the water cooler was that if it became a real thing there would be something implanted in your skin (not very big) that would release your daily dose so you don't have to remember to take a pill.

I have told some women, I had a girlfriend at the time of the study, she had her initial reservations but thought it was pretty awesome. My female coworkers thought the idea was great too (although everyone asked if my balls will work in the future.. well they still do.)

I'm a woman with an implant, and let me tell you...It's freaking awesome.

Tempted to slide in a breast implant joke, but I'll keep this AMA as classy as possible lol. Implants seem to be the way to go, don't have to worry about taking something on a daily basis, just go about your day. Glad it's awesome :)

Unfortunately, I hate mine :( Cannot wait to get it removed!

Why?

I'm not /r/Boredinillinois but I also have an implant. It's Nexplanon, a subdermal implant that is a bendy piece of plastic about the size of a matchstick inserted into my upper arm. I've had it about a year, and it lasts for 3 years.

I will wait out the three years, but I can't wait to get it removed. It's in a very irritable spot-- if I'm carrying something, or reaching over something the implant pushes against my skin and hurts. Because it is just below the skin, I expect to see it, but I didn't realize it would be as sensitive as it is.

I was originally on the pill (Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo), then Depo Provera, and now this. I chose this because I seemed to do well with Depo (I was told it's the same/similar drug), and the side effect of no period seemed like a good trade off. I was going about 10 months with no period and suddenly, huge period. That's also a reason I do not want another implant.

I didn't choose an IUD because the thought of having something in my vagina for that long kind of freaked me out, and I eventually failed with the pill so yeah. This is where I'm at.

Edit: There's a risk of it breaking or popping inside my arm, and I would need surgery to have it removed. Also not fun.

That's really unfortunate, it sucks that you have to just "deal with it". I hope your situation improves as soon as possible.

Have they tested people for longer durations of time? Perhaps prolonged exposure could eventually cause adverse effects?

I believe they have, but not by a whole lot of time. The protocols here are pretty strict and they wouldn't be able to run the tests if they weren't sure that there aren't any crazy adverse effects. The only concern was that there would be heightened blood pressure, which is what the study was trying to test. In fact, on the first day you have to wear a portable blood pressure monitor that takes readings every 20 minutes. That was probably the hardest part, I work in a science facility but I'm studying law and on that particular day I had a serious mock trial and I had to voire dire a jury and the thing beeped and went off a few times, it was a little embarrassing. The way the drug works (and I am by no means an expert in the process) is that it just disappears from your system a day or so after you stop the gel application (and that seemed to be the case considering I was back to normal a week after stopping). To my knowledge, and my doctors' knowledge there are no remnants of the drug still lingering in me that will affect me in any way in the future.

I'm hoping they improve the implanon too, It works well for me (has to come out in 6 months, then I'll get a new one for another 3 years) but it gives lots of people the heebie-jeebies knowing how long it actually is and I'll have an unfavourable scar, in that sense I wish I would have tried an IUD first. Horrible bruising, muscle pain and I was a bitch for two months, smooth sailing since.

I thought a male contraceptive would probably be a patch form rather than an implant, at least to start with. Taking the same time every day for any contraception can be tedious!

Yeah it was pretty tedious, however now that I'm home you guys got me tunneling through mounds of paperwork and apparently the drug was also administered as a mouth wafer, an intramuscular injection, or as an implant under the skin. I'd assume the two latter options were for the more long-term participants.

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Don't take my word for fact, I'm not 100% sure, this was a few years ago and current iterations might take a new form, either way, the point is the technology is out there, I'm sure there will be a variety of delivery methods for those who would opt out of an implant.

Just wanted to say...the implications of male birth control could be significant. Imagine if men in low-income minority populations learned they could have sex without worrying they'll get a girl pregnant and have to pay child support? It really could change the dynamic.

And that's just one practical application.

who is the biggest dick you've ever met in your life?

The biggest dick I have ever met in my life? Derek Jeter.

My grade school principal was Sister Marguerite Torre, Joe Torre's sister. As a result, whenever they won the world series they would come to my school, show off the trophy, and we'd get a day off. On the day they showed the trophy some of the players would go around to the classrooms. One of these times, when I was in 4th grade, Jeter and a few others came into my classroom and were just fucking dicks to all the kids and the teacher, they weren't obligated to be there, they decided to do it. Don't go into a room full of your 9-10 year old fans and then be a fucking asshole.

bro that also happened to me once. when i was in middle school in sf some kids got chosen to be in a commercial for the giants brian wilson showed up. I wasn't picked to do that but there was about 15 kids who were standing there including me to get an autograph form this giants player. After they finish filming he comes to the from gate and looks at us. we ask him if you can give us autographs and he just walks away. Like seriously if you get assaulted everyday by huge crowd asking for autographs why not spend 2 minutes of your time making the worlds future happy. Everyone from that day was pissed of at brian wilson.

Exactly. I can see if you're a dick to reporters and stuff, but these are kids, these are the people begging their parents to go out and spend money on their jersey's and baseballs etc. being a dick just makes them not want to buy your stuff. They make millions of dollars for throwing a ball around, they could be nice to kids every now and again.

What exactly did they do?

I couldn't tell you exactly. It was sort just the look and the feeling that he didn't want to be there and he was just tolerating us. He'd ignore kids completely etc. It wasn't like they were hounding him for autographs, he was just a famous person standing in front of a group of his 9 year old fans.

As the sister of a lady who suffers from severe migraines and therefore is not allowed the pill, it would be nice for her fella to be able to take BC so they wouldn't have to constantly use condoms. They ocasionally split, resulting in my sister rushing to the pharmancy for a morning after pill that messes her up for a day.

Exactly the point I was making to another person. Hopefully the drug is on the market soon so they can have a happy and healthy sex life!

Were you able to test on any female subjects?

Lol I had a girlfriend at the time and while I knew I was shooting blanks, I wasn't about to put it to the test, it was more of a mental thing for me.

Or you coulda been the placebo ?

It wasn't double blind, all participants in the study were really given the drug.

It wasn't even single blind you mean. Double blind refers to neither the participant nor the testers knowing who is the control and who is the participant.

Indeed, I changed my wording when another person asked the same question and I realized what I had typed previously ;) I'm firing off these comments like a madman so I've messed up a few words here and there.

Did you girlfriend say if your cum tastes any different? Is she down to do facials now since there is no sperm in it?

Wow. Lol well let's start at the top, the taste of cum depends on what you eat, not whether or not there are sperm in it. Also, I'm not sure why not having sperm inside of your ejaculate would make someone more inclined to get a facial, the ejaculate was of the same consistency as it was prior to the drug.

That's actually really interesting. I didn't know there was a difference between ejaculate and sperm.

I'm not a biology major, but my suspicion is that sperm are the little swimmers that are in your ejaculate, whether you have a lower (or non-existent sperm count) doesn't mean when you orgasm nothing comes out.

I am a biology major and you are correct. Semen is merely the receptacle for sperm. It contains nutrients and enzymes so that the sperm can survive outside of the testicles.

The more you know Bettie Jones, the more you know.

You are correct, sir :)

Sweet! What do I win?

My unwavering trust

What? I don't have any cookies, I ate them all.

I guess the trust will have to suffice. Too bad about the cookies though.

a lifetime supply of semen

Sweet! Salty!

how much did you get paid?

also if you are rubbing it on your abdomen, does that mean it is some sort of topical gel and it goes into the blood stream? why not just have everybody rub the gel on their nuts?

If I remember the numbers correctly, it was $2,000 for the month and about 900 for the week. You don't get it all at once though, you get paid per visit. Some visits were more important than others and thusly would pay more, I could have stopped the treatment at any time and just taken the money I had accrued so far, but I stuck through the whole study both times.

It was a topical gel that entered the bloodstream through your skin, as to why it was on the abdomen and not the nuts, well I'd only assume that each day's dose wasn't huge, but it was a decent amount of gel. I might have big balls but not big enough to rub in that much gel, the stomach affords more surface area.

You fuckin serious bro? How can I get in on this? I'll glady take $2k/month to not have kids.

Haha unfortunately you don't get it every month, but if you check this website this is a list of trials my job does on humans. They have a healthy patient section and a sick patient section (so if you have something like diabetes and they're doing a diabetes study, you can participate).

How do I apply for this ???

I'm just gonna copy and paste most of my response to the other guy who asked the same thing:

"If you check this website this is a list of trials my job does on humans. They have a healthy patient section and a sick patient section (so if you have something like diabetes and they're doing a diabetes study, you can participate)."

I always feel very squeamish reading about drug testers and the uncertainties that might occur. How sure are the researchers about the possible side effects? Do they run chemical tests first hand? Do they have an idea of what might happen or are they completely oblivious to something completely unpredictable like your testicles falling off in a month's time.

Human testing is fairly expensive compared to other options (computer modeling, testing on rats, etc). Given that, you can assume pretty much every other means of testing a drug has been done before they begin human trials.

You'll note in this case they were looking specifically at blood pressure, meaning they did a small study first and found elevated blood pressure in some of the previous group, so this round they test a larger group and see if there's a link between the drug use and blood pressure.

Correctomundo. We have plenty of mice and rats here to test drugs on before it moves into the outpatient clinic.

Well the institute I'm in immediately provides safety, The Rockefeller University has a number of Nobel prizes (24 I believe including the most recent one given out last year to the late Dr. Ralph Steinman). The employees here know what they're doing for sure, the protocols are strict and I was in a much later batch of the study (about 600 people had been on the drug before me and none of them presented any issues except heightened blood pressure in 2 or three people). It has been a few years and my balls are definitely still attached.

I think Steinman received the Nobel Prize in medicine, not peace.

Oh wow, that was a slip on my part, I meant Nobel Prize. I guess I'm just used to saying Nobel Peace Prize that it came out that way. Good catch!

It also says that this is a PK (pharmacokinetics) study which means they are mainly looking at how the drug levels change in the body after it's given. Usually the PK portions of drug studies are done way after most of the riskier testing (i.e., safety, general/reproductive toxicology), which are done in animals. By the time any drug gets to human testing it's usually been well-investigated in animal models (mostly rodents but the FDA requires testing in two non-rodent species as well for approval).

The more you know!

We have rhesus macaque's here too, nice username! But yeah, thanks for clarifying the PK situation, I wasn't 100% on the meaning of that.

No problem! It's pretty interesting, the PK portion is usually done by dosing the drug at a given time and then taking blood samples at predetermined intervals so they can analyze the sample to see how much drug is there as time goes on. The other side of it is called pharmacodynamics (PD; usually the whole bit is called PK/PD or DMPK for drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics) which looks at how your body breaks down the drug (so they could be looking for metabolites of the drug in the blood samples instead of the actual drug).

Those acronyms all look familiar, although I will say, they did take a metric shit ton of blood from me on pretty much every visit. 4 huge vials every time and usually I had to abstain from eating for about 15 hours so I was usually very delirious afterward.

You never really know how the feeding status will affect the metabolism of a drug, so that's probably why they had you fast. This is also part of why they instruct you to take a drug with or without food, or avoid certain foods when you are taking certain drugs. Everything interacts with everything else :) But thank you for volunteering for this study, it's an important part of drug development! Plus you got to beat it in the name of science.

I got to sit in a room and watch porn in the name of science, then I got some fingers in my butt in the name of science! .. and got paid for it. It was a sweet deal.

How often did you have to fill a cup?

I filled the cup once before the study began and that was followed by a full, fingers-up-the-butt physical examination which was followed by the study drug then I topped the cup off again during the experiment and then again afterward and then I went through another physical. Times that whole process by two, because I did the study twice.

were the fingers up the butt really necessary or was just a way to say "thank you" ?

The first one was necessary, but the one the doctor gave me on that house call, well that was a "thank you".

Nobody ever thanks me in butt fingerings.

You're missing out.

The sooner this becomes available the better. I'm constantly terrified that some woman I sleep around with will randomly hit me up and say she's pregnant.

That's exactly why this is important. I've had condoms break, and even those that don't are only 98% effective.

This seems like a pretty cool alternative to typical birth control(woman takes it, pill/shot/IUD etc) that is easily reversible.

Is there any timeline that you know of for putting this on the market?

Unfortunately that information isn't provided to me. It is, of course, not backed by the FDA yet. Since there were a few people who presented heightened bp's they needed to get it worked out before they could consider getting the FDA to approve of it and then find a vendor to being it to market. Next time I run into the study coordinator on campus I'm going to ask about the elusive 3rd study (there was supposed to be a third study that went on for 3 months but never seemed to happen). I would like to see it come to market as soon as possible.

This was a great ama! It looks like you answered close to all of the questions. You should do this more often.

I hate not answering people, I'm one of those guys who, on facebook, when I get 70 happy birthday wall posts, will usually reply to each one individually. What's the point of social networking of you're not going to converse. But unfortunately, I'm not sure I'd have a lot of other stuff that would interest a large group of people like this.

What was the trial drug? I have a pharmacology background so I'm curious as to how it works.

I can try and get more info on the type of drug when I get home, but from what I know (and from what it says at the bottom of the first picture):

"...a male birth control that stops the testes from making sperm. One drug being tested is a man-made hormone that is like testosterone, called MENT. MENT causes the body to make less sperm by decreasing the hormones your body needs to make sperm".

With your experience, is this something that you think guys will use when it hits market? Would you recommend it?

I sure hope so. It would have to be marketed well. I think there would be a lot of guys who would be averse to it, there would be those guys who are afraid that there will be averse effects so they'll wait, there will be those guys who are douches who feel that it's purely a women's place to prevent her from getting pregnant, and those that might feel that will emasculate them "You're not taking away my jizz, I'm a real man!" etc. Though, I do have my fingers crossed that it is received well and it becomes the new standard to share the responsibility of safe sex.

I think i'd be one of the ones who waits. I think it is a fantastic idea and will definitely use it in future if possible, however, i'm also a paranoid pair of wet trousers.

And there's nothing wrong with being that guy. Had I not already been on the drug, I'd wait too, to see if any side effects come out etc. It's a reasonable stance.

...what did the gel smell like?

Sort of like a combination of what a hospital smells like and rubbing alcohol.

As a women who finds in hard to be on bc thank you for your efforts. My question is.

Were you ever worried about being permanently sterilized if something went wrong?

It crossed my mind, I was assured that it wasn't an concern and that the worst that could happen is some unpleasantness and elevated bp and in that case I could stop the drug and as it naturally phased itself out of my body I'd return to normal. I didn't experience any of that though. Thanks for the support :)

Any idea how long it takes for that stuff to kick in? I mean, could you apply the gel, and in, say 3 hours (just a made up number), be shooting blanks? Or does it take a few days or so to start working?

Takes a few days, up to a week and officially it says it can take up to 9 months to recover to your baseline sperm count, however, I bounced back right away.

Thanks for the AMA. Have you been given any idea how close we are to having a male birth control available for public use?

I tackled this in another question. I'd hope that it comes to market as soon as possible. Since it was in the human-trial stage I'm sure it was on the FDA's radar. The drug just had to be worked out to make sure it wasn't causing elevated BP in certain subjects. Then they'd need a vendor to bring it to market, hopefully that's all done very soon!

Ah well thanks for answering it again, I didn't see that one. That's great news to hear though. You're doing men everywhere a great service.

It's no problem, it's hard to keep track of what's been asked and answered. Thanks! I hope to do it again a third time, and who knows, maybe if I do it a third time I can get more technical info for all those out there and do another one of these.

ITT: an OP that is responding to almost everything. Give the man an upvote for the effort!

Haha thanks man. I think it's pointless to make an AMA and then not respond to people. There are some here and there that I skipped, either trolls or people who I felt like I had nothing to add to, but for the most part everyone got a response.

Is this something you have to rub into your abdomen daily, or was it a longer time span?

Yup, it was a gel I rubbed on after my shower every day for the duration of the EX-PER-I-MENT. My sperm were indeed EX-TERM-IN-ATED.

As a woman, that's the one thing that would worry me...trusting the man enough to do that on a daily basis. I love my husband dearly, but reliable/responsible, he is not.

I know that men have the same response -- "how do I trust the woman to take her birth control?", but the reality is that the resulting burden is heavier on the woman if the man forgets to do his gel rubbing and she gets pregnant as a result. If it were me, I'd only use this male BC as a backup to my own BC.

How quickly does the gel rubbing work, and what is its efficacy? Like, if a guy uses it intermittently, say, only on the days that he plans on getting lucky, will it still work?

Well this was just the method of delivery for the study drug. If/when it hits market, it would be in a different form (from what I was lead to believe, it would be an implant of some sort that would dole out the proper dosage on a daily basis so you don't have to worry about applying it everyday. Although, with the gel, no, you weren't supposed to skip a day, it might be that you'd be safe by skipping one day, but why take the risk at all?

I'm interested to know what was in the gel. Was it a hormonal treatment that stopped the production of sperm altogether, affected the proper development of the sperm, or interfered with motor function? Also, did they say what form it would come in if they started to market it to the public (shot, implant, pill, etc)? Feel free to go in depth with your answer, I was a bio major.

I'd really like to go in depth here, but the fact is that a good amount of this stuff is lost on me. As to what was in the gel, well that wasn't disclosed (it might have been mentioned in person but it isn't in this stack of papers I have). I can tell you that it says "(the gel) causes the body to make less sperm by decreasing the hormones your body needs to make sperm". So it doesn't attack the sperm directly, but more like attacking the availability of raw materials so car manufacturing plants can produce cars, I guess might be a proper analogy. I have a bunch of paperwork with numbers and acronyms scattered all over, none of which if be able to accurately comment on.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how sterile are you?

1 being the most sterile and 10 being not sterile at all?

10, not sterile at all.

The picture from Manhattan cryobank shows my sperm information a week after stopping the medication, you'll notice my numbers are way above average.

No no. 10 being you look at a woman across the room and she's preggers.

That's some super villain shit. But on that scale, I'd say I'm about an 8. If I finished inside of a woman I'd more than likely get her pregnant.

How else do supervillians get minions? They're dumb for a reason. They get speed grown and still have the intelligence of an 8 year old.

This adds a whole new dynamic to evil-doing. I like it.

Do you remember your spermcounts before, during and after?

Well the after is posted here, the before, to be honest, I don't know off hand. I have all the paperwork at home. It was pretty much what you see above, but these numbers are slightly higher. During the study drug, the numbers were low enough where I was unable to reproduce.

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I was given no other drugs aside from the MENT gel, so my initial answer would be no. However, it might be possible that maybe they built these HPTA drugs into the MENT gel itself.

Anyone afraid this will lead to a rise in unprotected sex, thus leading to more STDs?

Not any more than female birth control causes more STD's. If you're having sex with a new partner you should always wrap it up regardless.

What would happen if you, being on birth control, would have sex with a woman on birth control? Just nothing?

Yeah, nothing, I'd suppose. It's just extra security against pregnancy.

How sure are you that you weren't a part of the control group? The group that is given the placebo?

Positive. In the group that I was in, all participants were given the real drug.

Were you told at the time that it was the real drug, or after? Or did they not have a control group?

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The efficacy of the drug was already established, Deej is on the money.

When I went in for the preliminary screening, where they describe the study, have me sign consent forms etc, they told me it would be the real drug and that everyone in this group got the real drug (I specifically asked). There might have been a control group in another group of participants before me.

Did you notice any changes in your mood/emotions while on the drug?

If anything I felt "in the mood" more often, but aside from that I didn't experience any mood swings or depression or anything.

Dude if I felt "in the mood" any more often I think my wife might leave me from pestering her so much.

That's exactly the situation I was it lol.

Wow, this is really interesting:

• Do you think it will have as much impact as the birth control pill when it was first introduced?

• Is it better to take it than to your partner take the pill?

I think it will be met with skepticism, as most things are. The media will probably try to question its validity to drum up ratings, I'm sure if anyone has an issue (even if it's unrelated to the drug) that they'll try to sue and get rich quick.. you know, the standard shit. Though I do think it will eventually become commonplace in our society.

This depends. If your partner has issues with birth control (pains, heavier more painful periods, cramps etc.) then hell yeah, the man should be on it. If FBC doesn't adversely affect the female then I don't see why both partners shouldn't be on it, just to be extra safe.

I have always liked this idea, not because I dont want the responsibility, but because it will help guys keep from having babies they dont want. Girls can always get an abortion without the guys consent, but guys cant make the girl abort.

Definitely. If a guy doesn't want a kid then he takes it and he's set even if a condom breaks and/or the girl lies about her birth control, he's still covered.

How long after application does until the drug has it's desired effect, and how long after your last application does it take to wear off? Does this differ depending on how long you've been taking it?

Well you start applying it on day 1 and they said it would take a day or two to kick in, I'd think after one full day of wearing it (by the time the second application of the gel rolls around) you're good to go. I'd assume it takes a few days to wear off, they tested me after a week and I was back to normal.

I want you to know I'm drinking a beer in your honor.

I am too! Having a couple, enjoying my few hours of reddit fame lol. Have two for me.

What kind of packaging was it in? Was it like to foil shampoo samples? Or a big bottle? I'm curious how they made sure you got the same dose every day.

It was a medium sized cylindrical bottle with a pump top, sort of like they for moose for your hair. The dosage was "one full pump".

Thank you for your efforts in the advancement of applied knowledge.

I do what I can in the name of science!

How did the drug affect your sex drive? Did they give any indication on when it would hit the market?

My sex drive was more-or-less the same, maybe even a little heightened. No, unfortunately that information wasn't provided to me. Given they were in the human trial portion of the study and working out the kinks I'd hope that it isn't too much longer but unfortunately with all the red tape this kind of stuff takes awhile to get to market.

Did you have to abstain or keep a certain schedule before or during the study?

Well I had to put it on after my shower, if I put it on before it would come off. Also, I had to avoid kids for a few hours after applying it. The topical gel could rub off into the kids and affect them significantly. The only other abstinence was in terms of fasting. Before I had blood taken I usually had to not have food in my stomach for 15 hours.

How does it work?

It says it in one of the pictures, it works by stopping certain hormones that produce the sperm.

Closed for enrollment :(

What is?

The study. Some extra cash and male birth control? Sign me up!

I posted the link to all the studies going on at the University. I didn't look too much at what's available, some of them pay pretty well.

Now everyone can stick their dick in crazy. You're a damn hero!

I try! Thanks, I appreciate it!

Was there a pre / during / and post check to see how your hormones were affected?

Yes. On pretty much every visit they drew a lot of blood samples (which was about once a week), so they monitored their patients pretty closely to make sure nothing out of the ordinary was going on. After the drug they made us wear the portable BP monitor again to make sure our BP hasn't changed at all.

Any idea what they were?

"Normal" ranges for test is quite vast. I would never want to be on the low side of "normal".

I'm sure it's somewhere in the paperwork but I'm by no means qualified to look at and comprehend the cryptic acronyms and numbers. I trusted what the scientists and doctors told me when they said I was back to normal and doing a little better, actually.

The reason I ask -

You peak in testosterone production around 25 years old and then taper off until death. It is being noticed that a lot of issues men 30+ (can happen younger) are having can be related or influenced by a low level of testosterone. So, my hopes with male birth control is it can help keep those levels up to around what they were at 25. Much like how female birth control can be used to regulate a insane period cycle or help with hormone imbalance.

Low Test Symptoms :

• Sexual dysfunction (unable to maintain erections)
• Reduced sex drive (reduced sexual activity)
• Decreased energy
• Loss of body hair, reduced shaving
• Depressed mood
• Increase in body fat
• Decrease in bone strength
• Reduced muscle mass

Hum, interesting. Well that would definitely be an added benefit of the drug if it would be able to keep those levels up.

Do you know why they chose gel as the drug delivery method? And do you know why the studies you were in were so short?

It was probably the most cost effective and feasible for a short-term study and it's possible the technology had not been advanced to the point where it was in gel form. The studies weren't testing the efficacy of the drug itself, but rather seeing if more subjects presented with elevated bp's, I suppose the duration of the studies gave them enough data to proceed with whatever the next step is.

I'm on a male form of birth control too, it's called "being broke".

There's a difference between being on birth control and not having sex because women find your lack of funds unappealing and thusly refuse to have sex with you.

Very observant of you.

I pride myself on my ability to observe.

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I think he meant he never imagined a scenario in life where he'd have to prove that he's been on male birth control.

Thanks, cracka.

I'm having deja-vu.

"... I'm fully aware that AMA's require proof, although I'd assume there is a standard for proof, that I would have to prove to some extent to satisfy moderators. My comment was merely saying that I hope it's enough proof. What was so hard about that to understand? "

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... I'm fully aware that AMA's require proof, although I'd assume there is a standard for proof, that I would have to prove to some extent to satisfy moderators. My comment was merely saying that I hope it's enough proof. What was so hard about that to understand?

I never imagined having to prove this.

From the sidebar, in big bold letters:

All AMAs require proof.

Seriously, what about that is so hard to understand? Thanks for providing proof though, and also for the interesting AMA!

The fourth time is when I report you. Thanks for being an adult here, man.

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Dude, stop making this same comment.

For the third time:

"... I'm fully aware that AMA's require proof, although I'd assume there is a standard for proof, that I would have to prove to some extent to satisfy moderators. My comment was merely saying that I hope it's enough proof. What was so hard about that to understand?"

I think it's funny that drug companies are investing in a another (assumed) hormonal drug rather than a proven non-hormonal such as Vasalgel. I suppose they would rather have you on something that only lasts a week at a time.

Well firstly, drug companies had nothing to do with this. These are scientists at this university coming up with these drugs and tests. Also, the drug, if it were to hit the market would last a month at a time, perhaps longer. Obviously there are more permanent methods, but if you don't feel like having your vas deferens clogged up by getting a shot in your genitals, you can take this gel instead. It is an advancement for science and for birth control in general, if you're too blind to see that, then I can't help you.

You are a little naive if you think drug company money had nothing to do with a clinical trial.

Please, explain to me my job and how their funding works, because as an employee I am obviously completely unaware of how this process goes in terms of applying for a protocol, getting grants and other types of funding.

If I had money, I would give you gold for this.

It's the thought that counts :)

But I wouldn't be opposed to "real" reddit gold :P