New Male Contraceptive, On Large Trial

Filed in archive Studies on April 4, 2006

RISUG (Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance): a reversible, nonhormonal contraceptive that provides 10 or more years of protection after a 10-15 minute procedure, is the new male contraceptive under trial. After almost 4 years of delay, its researchers received approval this week to begin enrolling additional study volunteers.

In the RISUG study, doctors inject a gel into the tube that sperm travel through after they are produced (known as the vas deferens). The gel then disables the sperm as they swim by. In study animals, male Fertility returns if the RISUG is flushed out with another injection that dissolves the gel.

Men are awaiting the results of the large clinical trial on RISUG being conducted in India. Director of the nonprofit Male Contraception Information Project in San Francisco, Elaine Lissner is not surprised that American men are watching the RISUG trial with keen interest. She believes that RISUG has the potential to be the first truly affordable, reversible, long-term male contraceptive.

Source: EurekAlert.

Read more about male contraception at www.newmalecontraception.org