Male birth control side effects – no, men are not wimps
A new male birth control method, which utilizes a hormonal injection, was designed to slow or block sperm production. However, according to various media reports, this new birth control method won’t be available anytime soon because men are weaklings, unable to handle the side effects, such as moodiness and acne, which women on birth control tolerate. As a result of these side effects the study was terminated.
In between all of the political news that seems to be monopolizing all of our social networking feeds, you probably saw a few articles that said that a male birth control clinical trial was terminated because “men can’t handle side effects women face daily.” Other reputable websites, like the Atlantic, ran headlines pushing the same trope, stating that “a clinical trial of contraceptives for men was halted because of side effects—side effects that women have dealt with for decades.”
But it didn’t stop there. My Twitter and Facebook feeds were flooded with memes that pushed the male birth control clinical trial proves men are wimps compared to women. To be clear, I think that male birth control is a great idea, and sociologically, it forces men to share in the burden of contraceptives. Cynically, I’ll bet that right wingers will be less controlling of male birth control than they are with women’s reproductive rights. But hey, I’m nothing if I’m not a cynic.
The problem with the memes and tropes is that they’re completely wrong. The study was halted because one of the two independent committees that monitor this trial’s safety data (something that happens with all drugs undergoing clinical trials in the USA) was concerned about the high number of adverse events the men experienced. Furthermore, the incidence of adverse events was higher than what is experienced by women using hormonal birth control.
Lucky for us, the data from this study was published in a peer reviewed journal, so we can take a look at what actually happened.
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