At a Glance / Aperçu
Male contraceptive one step closer
Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 155: 967
The World Health Organization is examining promising results from an international, 2-year clinical trial of a hormonal contraceptive for men. The method relies on hormone injections to reduce the concentration of sperm in semen to either very low or undetectable levels.
The average times taken to reach the required level of oligospermia or azoospermia were 68 and 100 days respectively; when treatment was stopped, the average times taken for the men to return to pretreatment levels of sperm production were 112 and 201 days respectively. The overall effectiveness achieved in the trial was 98.6%, which is comparable to similar hormonal controls for women, such as oral contraceptives.
| CMAJ October 1, 1996 (vol 155, no 7) |