Gel Shows Promise as Future Male Contraceptive

HealthDay – 8 mins ago MONDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Men may one day have a birth-control option other than the condom or vasectomy -- if early research on a new contraceptive gel pans out.

Preliminary findings suggest that when applied to the skin, the gel dramatically lowers sperm counts, thus also lowering -- though not eliminating -- the risk for pregnancy.

This is the first time that a combination of testosterone and a synthetic progestin called Nestorone has been tested as a gel that could be applied topically. Previous research involved administering the combination by injection or via a patch, said study senior author Dr. Christina Wang, a professor of medicine at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.

The combination contraceptive needs to undergo further testing before it is commercially available.

Although men have sometimes received a bad rap for not being willing to assume responsibility for birth control, Dr. Joseph Alukal, an assistant professor of urology at NYU Langone Medical Center, in New York City, thinks this reputation may be somewhat undeserved.

"I think

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Gel Shows Promise as Future Male Contraceptive

HealthDay – 7 mins ago MONDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Men may one day have a birth-control option other than the condom or vasectomy -- if early research on a new contraceptive gel pans out.

Preliminary findings suggest that when applied to the skin, the gel dramatically lowers sperm counts, thus also lowering -- though not eliminating -- the risk for pregnancy.

This is the first time that a combination of testosterone and a synthetic progestin called Nestorone has been tested as a gel that could be applied topically. Previous research involved administering the combination by injection or via a patch, said study senior author Dr. Christina Wang, a professor of medicine at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.

The combination contraceptive needs to undergo further testing before it is commercially available.

Although men have sometimes received a bad rap for not being willing to assume responsibility for birth control, Dr. Joseph Alukal, an assistant professor of urology at NYU Langone Medical Center, in New York City, thinks this reputation may be somewhat undeserved.

"I think

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Contraceptive pill, ring tied to higher stroke risk

Reuters – 6 hrs ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The largest study to examine the risks of hormone-based birth control has concluded the contraceptives carry a small risk of stroke and heart attack, depending on the method and type of hormone used.

But the risk for individual women remains extremely low, particularly in younger women.

Danish researchers wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the findings suggest a higher risk of stroke in particular for women using vaginal rings, and possibly hormonal skin patches -- though the second finding was based on a smaller group of women and could have been due to chance.

Dr. James Simon, a women's health researcher at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. told Reuters Health other factors -- such as the belief that a patch or a ring might be safer for women thought to be at risk -- may explain the higher rate of stroke in that group.

Simon, who wasn't involved in the new research, said the findings probably shouldn't change how doctors prescribe birth control. The risks seen in the study, he said, pale in comparison to the risks of stroke, heart attack or death faced by women who get pregnant.

"None of the hormonal contraceptives studied

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