Nuts and Volts, The Future of Male Contraception May Have Arrived

The male/female dynamic may finally be upon a little, ahem, shock to the system. University of North Carolina researchers recently found that applying ultrasound equipment, traditionally used in physical therapy, to men’s testes may be an effective form of male contraception. Now if we could just use the equipment on their brains to get them to remember to use this method…

In the study, repeated application of high frequency ultrasound around the testes reduced sperm counts in lab rats to levels well below those of fertile men. The team found the most favorable results performing two 15-minute sessions, two days apart. The testes were warmed to 37 degrees centigrade after saline was applied to facilitate conduction between the ultrasound apparatus and skin. The combined effect was a Sperm Count Index of zero (which is 3 million motile sperm per cauda epididymis, i.e., the sperm storage tube). For context: Low sperm count is defined as anything below 15 million sperm per millimeter (95 percent of fertile men have more than 39 million sperm in their ejaculate).

The head researcher said that this noninvasive ultrasound treatment is promising, though further study is necessary to determine how long its contraceptive effect would last and if it’s safe to use the ultrasound technique on testes multiple times.

This is very exciting news for those of us dying to get off the pill. But we won’t hold our breath until they come up with a new way of saying, “We’re going to put a current on your balls.” It’s hard to get a dude to even go to the dentist…

Source: http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2012/january/sonicating-sperm-the-future-of-male-contraception

Nuts and Volts

The Future of Male Contraception May Have Arrived

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