This comment is from JustAMan on the post The Pill and the Patriarchy
Condoms just don’t provide adequate control. Even in combination with a non-pharmaceutical like a diaphragm. If you disagree, fine, but my oldest child was conceived just that way. IUDs are effective, relatively safe and reversible. The pill and its offspring, implants and shots, are effective, relatively safe and reversible for women. We guys just don’t have that level of control. And, yeah, sometimes my lady wants it in her. She will communicate that very clearly to me. She doesn’t take kindly to my saying no.
RISUG, which has been in clinical trials in India for more than a decade is the functional male equivalent of an IUD. But Planned Parenthood, Guttmacher Institute, et al, cannot be bothered to fund or organize the funding of trials in the US. That has fallen on the shoulders of a lone woman.
Maybe the pharmaceutical companies will see fit to fund male pill / under-skin implants of progesterin-related compounds all the way to FDA approval. It always seems to be about “3 years away.” Unlike with the female pill or female implants, in the case of men testosterone cannot be delivered orally or by subcutaneous long-term release. But I think we men can be trusted to apply a daily schmear of T-gel on the skin to keep from falling into severe depression and lethargy.
This is about individual control, not trust.
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Photo: robertelyov / flickr
Spot On!
Just one point: Planned Parenthood and Guttmacher do not fund clinical trials of any pharmaceuticals, so don’t snark on them. It’s the government (here or elsewhere), research universities, and pharmaceutical companies you should be complaining about.