An illustration picture shows a woman holding a birth control pill at her home in Nice January 3, 2013.An illustration picture shows a woman holding a birth control pill at her home in Nice January 3, 2013.
An illustration picture shows a woman holding a birth control pill at her home in Nice January 3, 2013. Reuters

A new form of birth control pill has come up and this time, it is for men. The birth control pill, which is a non-intrusive solution, unlike condoms, might be the next breakthrough for pregnancy prevention.

According to ABP Live, two projects were coming up for obstructing male fertility. One of the two projects are H2-gamendazole, which prevents sperms from growing a head and a tail in the testes, and the other is JQ1, which could trick the body into forgetting the process of making the sperm.

Joseph Tash is a reproductive biologist in the Medical Centre at the University of Kansas in the US, and he has been working on H2-gamendazole since 2001. He said that if there is no sperm, then the egg is not going to be fertilised.

The compound JQ1, a non-hormonal male contraceptive pill, was found by Jay Bradner and his team in the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at the Harvard University. The compound had the ability to block bromodomain proteins in the cancerous cells and the division of the abnormal cells stopped because of it. It was also found to obstruct BRDT, which is a testicle-specific bromodomain found in humans. BRDT made the sex cells forget about its own behaviour.

Research in the laboratories found that male mice treated with JQ1 had the ability to have sexual relationship with their mates and did not produce offsprings. It was found that JQ1 produced reversible sterility in the mice. It was reported that the drug would take several years to come into the market.

Previously, other studies were conducted which suggested that gossypol, an extract of cotton, could be used as a male contraceptive pill. It was found that it decreased sperm production but has a permanent effect in about 20 percent of the men, reported malecontraceptives.org. JQ1 is a compound that lacked the adverse effect of previously researched contraceptives.

The most common types of male contraception that is currently available in the market are condoms and vasectomy. Other ways that men could help in preventing pregnancy are by practicing withdrawal or pulling out of the penis before ejaculation.

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