A recent grant towards male non-hormonal contraception to change the future of family planning

By Maya Blumenfeld

Article written for Columbia University J-School in the fall of 2023

[Unpublished]

In a not-so-distant future, sperm may no longer be able to swim very far, thanks to a potential non-hormonal contraceptive for men. With the help of a recent $6 million grant, a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine are working towards a world of equal contraceptive responsibility within sexual relationships.

With only condoms and vasectomies at the forefront of men’s birth control options, the doctors at the head of this advancement and its target users see this new possibility as a welcome addition to existing forms of reproductive autonomy.

At the same time, others worry it leaves room for potential misuse at the expense of women.

A 2017 study conducted by the Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI) found that more than four in 10 men said they were very interested in a contraceptive pill that would be taken on-demand before sex — similar to the one in development at Weill Cornell’s Contraception Development Research Center. The interest was highest for this theorized form of birth control.

However, it seems like it won’t stay theoretical for much longer.

“The pharmaceutical industry has been very gun shy to enter the male contraceptive field,” says Lonny Levin, one of two pharmacology professors leading the lab. “But the argument was always that because men have less to risk, and that’s actually from a biological point.”

In late September, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the center with a $6 million grant as part of a mandate that includes two other centers focused on female contraception research. The Weill Cornell contraception center is the only one dedicated to male contraceptive trials.

While there have been past efforts to expand male contraceptive options, Levin says there is a “high bar” set, meaning it’s crucial to target only the testes or sperm instead of affecting other parts of the body, which would consequentially reflect side effects that would make it unusable and undesirable.

According to Levin, there has been research done towards creating hormonal options, which stop sperm production. But since sperm takes two-and-a-half months to be made, there are complications involved when contraception tried to stop production as it’s actively happening.

His and Jochen Buck’s research towards the potential male birth control pill started 25 years ago. “I knew of a literature that says there could be such a molecule that had never been discovered or never been characterized,” Levin says. “We both sort of immediately saw how important this was going to be and we both dropped everything else we were doing.”

That molecule, a cytosolic enzyme, which is found within the cell, is called soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) and plays the starring role in the function of Buck and Levin’s contraceptive research. As a messenger enzyme, it signals changes on a cellular level. And when it was first experimented with in mice, Buck says, the males showed complete infertility, while female fertility was left unaffected.

Then in the winter of 2018, a Christmas miracle happened, as Buck describes it: “We had a postdoc in the lab, who was studying the function of soluble cyclases and sperm,” Buck says. “She did an injection of one of these compounds, waited an hour and took out the sperm from the mouse … And the sperm looked just like a knockout. They sat there in the dish, it didn’t move.”

“And I go, ‘Oh, my God, that’s a holy grail. That’s a male pill,’” Levin adds. “And Jochen said, ‘Wait, stop, it’s even better. It’s an acute acting.’”

The pill, once on the market, is projected to kick in after an hour of swallowing it and remain effective in the body for 12–18 hours until resuming regular fertility, says Buck.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concludes that almost 50% of pregnancies are unintended. Levin cites this, adding that in conjunction with a separate study conducted through the Gates Foundation, he was further moved to be part of producing a ground-breaking birth control option.

The research looked at both prior to and post the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the percentage of men who would be willing to take contraception jumped from 40% to 50%.

“The men were less likely only because there was good contraception and availability of abortion. As soon as one of those two variables went away, the number went up,” says Levin. He says that giving people more options will only add to preventing those difficult scenarios that come with unplanned pregnancy.

“About a year ago, my partner accidentally got pregnant even though she had a perfectly placed IUD,” says Eran Shisel, a graduate student in the tech industry. Though they discovered the pregnancy early, he notes how going through that process had been traumatic for her.

“Even a 99% effectiveness rate can fail sometimes, and it probably could have been avoided had we both were on birth control.”

To Shisel, the idea of the non-hormonal pill offers another option to men besides “bothersome” condoms and “scary and intimidating” vasectomies.

“I think a male pill would be a feminist thing to have,” he says. “To allow for men to hold this shared responsibility with their female partners more equally.”

On the other hand, there is also hesitation when it comes to tasking men with this accountability.

“I think that women or whoever’s engaging in penetrative sex with men should still be very cautious,” says Lila Baer, a neuroscience major who has worked in research on women’s hormones. “Because at the end of the day, if something happens, the woman is the one who is left to deal with it.”

“We’re investigating whether we could give this similar compound to females as an on-demand female pill,” Levin says. In a perfect world, he adds, they would have a couple’s pill on the market, both at least 95% effective, that would be each taken for multiplied efficacy.

“It still makes me excited,” says Baer, “because I think that women have been stuck taking hormones for decades, that at this point, they wouldn’t even know the impact, because it is so deeply entrenched in their routine.”