Courtney Martin asks of the recent and trending buzz about effective hormonal contraception for men

...if you’re the kind of gal who partners with men, would you trust them to take oral contraception responsibly or would you rather keep the pill in your court, so to speak?

Source: Feministing

All things considered wouldn’t it be better if you both kept the pill in your respective courts?

Because while even the low-dose versions of The Pill for women are quite reliable when taken conscientiously in practice the risks of fertility can be higher. It does sound like most of the mechanisms for hormonally deactivating sperm or blocking its production (testosterone, progestin) might create a little more room for slackers. But while there’s no reason believe men would be any less reliable than women about taking The Pill for men, there’s also no reason to believe they’d be any more so.

There’s a reason reasonably cautious people always rely on two forms of contraception. And the advent of a male Pill isn’t going to magically change that.

What it will change is that it’ll give men a third contraceptive option beyond condoms and vasectomies. And since it’ll almost certainly be more reliable than condoms for contraception, and waaaay more reversible than vasectomies, I’m guessing the uptake will actually turn out to be pretty high.

Martin also semi-snarks

"Of course, women may have to trust that their partners are using birth control, as men do now. But at least one method, hormone implants, visibly bulge from a man’s bicep. 'Guys like it because they can show it off,' Dr. Amory said. 'Proof that the male is contracepting.'

I can already hear the craptastic pick-up lines. Lordy.

First of all, based at least on my experience with a vasectomy at age 21, while my partners tended to be interested that I had one I don’t believe knowing I was infertile changed anyone’s decision one way or the other. So while there may be some bicep-flexers trying to show off I’m pretty sure that's never going to be anyone's deciding factor for hookups.

One thing I think will be really important about a male Pill, is a verification method to make sure it’s working. Comic imagery not withstanding, a chip in a bicep would be good. Even better though would be one that could be checked on the spot pregnancy-test style with, say, tagged-antibodies for active presence of either active or inactive sperm in semen or pre-ejaculatory secretions. (Extra credit if saliva or urine could be used instead.)

Anyway, not only would something like that be useful confirmation for women in couples who are just initiating sex with each other, it would be useful for men to confirm that their contraceptive is working correctly.

And finally, I feel quite confident that when a reliable but easily reversible form of non-barrier contraception becomes available for men that it’ll transform men’s relationship with our fertility, it will reduce our odd indoctrinated fatalism about pregnancy being “in the woman’s hands,” and it’ll definitely reduce peer male sympathy when another man’s partner has an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.

I’ve mentioned this before elsewhere but I think for once MRA-style paranoia about “paternity fraud” and forms of pregnancy-related learned helplessness can be used to increase demand for a male Pill! Although even then over time I suspect having more pragmatic control over their own fertility will tend to mellow a lot of those guys out and/or make it more difficult for them to play the victim card if they choose to avoid it.

Quick question for Martin: would it be so snarky if the bicep flexers were showing off not to potential hookups but to other men who hadn't yet gotten theirs?