New male contraception – called, the strangely feminine Vagasel (yes, like Vagisil, the stuff you might use if you’ve got thrush) – is on its way to the UK.
The first male contraception since the condom, it’s been approved by America’s FDA and is expected to be available between 2018 and 2020. Instead of being a pill that a guy would take once a day, it’s actually ‘a non-hormonal polymer that is injected under local anesthetic into a man’s sperm carrying tubes, accessible through the scrotum – not the penis or testicles.’ And it works to stop sperm getting outside the scrotum.
Don’t worry, a guy’s balls won’t explode from this. Sperm are absolutely tiny and die off and are remade all the time, and besides, come is made in the prostate gland further down the line, which won’t be blocked off.
If it had to have an equivalent, it’d be the coil. But if there was an easier method, say, a pill, would men actually use it?
Sadly, a survey of 2,681 (granted, it was done by VouchersCodePro.co.uk) found that only one in ten men would take a male contraceptive pill, with 89% of respondents saying no to it. And the survey wasn’t even of single men, but of men who’d been with their partner for at least six months!
Of those who wouldn’t take the pill, 21% were scared of the long-term effects of taking it, and a whopping 24% said it’s a ‘woman’s responsibility’ to look after contraception.
While two thirds said they’d agree to using contraception during intercourse (we’re guessing this means a condom), a quarter admitted to not using them at all.
A spokesperson for VoucherCodesPro told The Sun: ‘I’m really shocked by these results and I’m sure a few females will no doubt feel angry towards the male view that contraception should be a woman’s responsibility.’
It’s frustrating, yes, but maybe male contraception is a chicken and egg thing – or, well a sperm and egg thing. Maybe men just won’t use it because they’re not used to it and it’s never been around?
Or maybe it’s because the act of taking a pill every day is a bit arduous and outdated – the pill has been coming in a one-a-day form since the 1960s, after all – and men are only now considering how bullshit it is that people would ever have to guzzle hormones every day just to stay un-pregnant.
Or maybe, just as more women seem to be using the coil, men would opt for an in-person piece of baby-blocking. After all, according to RT.com, research published in December 2014 by the Centre of Epidemiology and Health said at least half of men would use Vagasel, that oddly-named, coil-like male contraceptive.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.