Male birth control could finally be a reality with gel that’s rubbed on shoulders

Men may soon be able to shoulder the responsibility of birth control.

A hormonal birth control gel, which is rubbed on each shoulder blade once daily, shows promising results in a new trial. 

“The development of a safe, highly effective and reliably reversible contraceptive method for men is an unmet need,” senior study author Dr. Diana Blithe, chief of the Contraceptive Development Program at the National Institutes of Health, said in a news release.

Researchers’ findings were announced Sunday at the Endocrine Society’s meeting in Boston. 

The phase 2 trial included 222 men aged 18 to 50, all of whom used around a teaspoon of the hormone gel, made up of the hormones testosterone and segesterone acetate, on each shoulder blade daily. 

In the trial, 86% of the men had sperm suppression after an average of eight weeks, which was faster than researchers expected. 

“While studies have shown that some hormonal agents may be effective for male contraception, the slow onset of spermatogenic suppression [has been] a limitation,” Blithe wrote. 

The synthetic hormone segesterone acetate, also called Nesterone, is an ingredient of the birth control ring (used by women). Researchers think the use of Nesterone makes the new gel work quickly and require less testosterone. It’s also meant to keep men from producing sperm without impacting their sex drive or causing other side effects. Researchers said that men’s blood testosterone levels have stayed low enough to keep their normal sexual function. 

Past birth control trials took between nine and 15 weeks for men to start seeing results, and researchers think the faster-acting birth control gel may make this gel a better option.

“A more rapid time to suppression may increase the attractiveness and acceptability of this drug to potential users,” Blithe said.

Researchers are now studying how well the gel protects against pregnancy. Because of this, the participants in the trial were required to be in committed monogamous relationships and have consent from their female partners. They promised to have sex at least once a month for a year. 

There have been decades of research, but there are no federally approved birth control drugs for men. This isn’t because of potential, researchers argue, but because there hasn’t been enough funding to complete more advanced human trials.

“We’ve been pushing for hormonal male contraceptives for 50 years, but there isn’t enough money available to really drive something through a very large phase 3 trial,” Dr. Daniel Johnston, chief of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Contraception Research Branch, told ABC.

Phase 3 clinical trials are one of the last steps before a drug is approved for use. The trials typically involve hundreds, if not thousands, of participants, and can last from one to four years, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

“We’ve been chasing this for a long time,” Johnston said. “I hope we’re entering new territory.”

Johnston said he believes if male birth control were approved, investors and pharmaceutical companies would put more energy toward other medications. 

One of the participants in the trial, Logan Whitehead, told NBC News that application of the gel was easy, and he faced minimal side effects, which included some upper back acne and weight gain. (But Whitehead acknowledged his weight gain could have also come from a sedentary job that he had recently accepted.)

“It was basically like a hand sanitizer solution,” Whitehead, who lives in Torrance, California, told NBC. “Smelled like hand sanitizer, looked like hand sanitizer.”

Despite the success, plans to push the gel into phase 3 trials are still up in the air, as more funding would be needed.