By Kiyoshi Tomono
Daily Bruin Contributor
Forgetting a condom may no longer be an excuse for men if
researchers at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center are successful.
As physicians in the center’s department of endocrinology,
metabolism, and nutrition, Dr. Ronald Swerdloff and Dr. Christina
Wang have spent the past few years developing a hormonal
contraceptive for males. The contraceptive would be a third
alternative ““ other than condoms and vasectomies ““ for
men who want to prevent impregnating a woman.
Now, the physicians said, they are closer than ever to reaching
that goal.
“Studies … have shown that the hormonal male
contraceptive can be as effective as the available oral birth
control pill for women in preventing pregnancy,” Swerdloff
said. “In the past, these studies have used injectable
testosterone as the form of male contraception.”
The fruit of the researchers’ most recent labor is a
series of implanted rods, modeled after a similar device for women
called Norplant. Norplant is placed beneath the skin of the upper
arm and emits a continuous stream of the female hormone
progestin.
Unlike earlier studies where testosterone was injected into
muscles, Swerdloff and Wang recently implanted the rods along with
testosterone pellets to produce a sustained source of female and
male hormones.
According to Wang, they are still trying to clear up the right
dosage and type of hormones, so that the agents are administered
anywhere from six months to a year.
“Recently, there have been studies done at a number of
research institutions that have indicated that a combination of
testosterone, the male hormone, and progestin … are more
effective than testosterone alone in suppressing sperm
counts,” Swerdloff said.
The doctors said there are two running explanations as to why
the combination is more effective than using testosterone
alone.
First, Swerdloff said, the combination may be more effective in
turning off the signal from the pituitary gland that stimulates the
testes to produce sperm. Second, the female hormone progestin may
act directly on the testes to decrease sperm counts.
The researchers plan on testing out their theories on progestin
in June, when they will begin a new study by recruiting 40 subjects
to test their hormone cocktail’s effectiveness.
If the mix is effective and they are able to secure a
pharmaceutical company to fund a larger-scale study, Swerdloff said
it could take up to five to seven years before a product actually
hits shelves.
“In all of the studies we’ve done and have been done
by other investigators, all have shown that this hormones approach
is entirely reversible,” Wang said. “The effectiveness
also seems to be clear, but we are fine-tuning the agents for …
timing of administration.”
Doctors use a small surgical procedure to insert the tubes under
the skin of the upper arm under local anesthesia, Swerdloff said. A
less painful version of the hormone combination could employ a
hormone-impregnated patch, Wang said, which would deliver the drugs
through the skin.
Even if approved as safe and made into a product, first-year
computer science engineering student Manning Yuan said he’d
be reluctant to use the implants.
“It’s just the fact that you can’t control it
once it’s in,” Yuan said. “Surface contraception
(condoms) is just more convenient.”
Cecilia Mak, a fourth-year communications studies student,
disagreed, saying that contraception also involves
responsibility.
“I would use it (in a relationship) because it’s
wrong that women have to hold the weight and burden of
contraception,” Mak said.