The Boy Pill
Birth control has come a long way over the years. According to a 2013 Our Bodies Ourselves article by Kirsten M.J. Thompson, as early as 3000 BC people were fashioning condoms out of resources such as animal intestines. Around 1500, the first spermicides were introduced, and birth control has been an important part of family planning ever since. However for years, birth control has primarily been used by women. Men should be able to have access to more than just condoms, or injections, and up and coming male birth control pills should not be overlooked. Oral contraceptives for males should be utilized. They have benefits not only for men, but for women as well, and could potentially have large effects on families in the future.
For years, women have had to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies on their own. According to the official Planned Parenthood website, there are thirteen different birth control methods for women, but only five for men. Why is this? Of these options, some aren’t very effective and others are rather inconvenient, which can make men not want to choose them. This definitely places a lot of the responsibility on the shoulders of women in heterosexual couples, which isn’t fair considering pregnancy is a big step for both parties. A 2013 Live Science article by Eric Olson states that a healthy adult man can release more than forty million sperm cells in a single ejaculation, whereas females typically release one egg per month. When taking in those numbers, it hardly seems fair that birth control is predominantly a female issue.
Male birth control pills could provide more than just solace for females. They’re definitely something men should consider incorporating something into their routines.  A National Public Radio article from November of 2016 says that male birth control pills have been sought out before, but were always shut down during clinical trials due to side effects such as acne, weight gain, mood swings, and in some cases severe emotional changes. Sound familiar? It should, as these are issues that can all be caused by the female pill as well. However according to the GlobalPost, scientists in Indonesia have recently developed a male birth control that is not only claimed to be ninety-nine percent effective, but with next to none of the side effects that have caused problems in the past because unlike the female pill, it doesn’t work by messing around with hormones, but rather by weakening the enzymes in sperm cells. Unfortunately it could take anywhere from five to ten years before the United States FDA approves this kind of medication. A 2017 Healthline poll says claims that the majority of men would not be willing to take oral contraceptives, but there are indications that this could be changing. More recent generations are wanting to share the responsibilities of reproduction and family planning, and single men are interested in having control over their fertility to reduce the chances of falling victim to the “pregnancy trap.”
The typical American family stereotype has changed. Dawn Lee from the Single Mother Guide writes in January 2018 that single motherhood is becoming a societal norm, due to a growing number of children being born outside of marriage. In fact, about forty percent of children are born to unwed mothers, and nearly seventy percent are born to women under the age of thirty. One in four children in the United States is raised without a father, and fifty percent of pregnancies each year in the United States are unplanned. In 2016 the Guttmacher Institute reported that eight percent of women rely on male sterilization, which men really aren’t interested in. Almost six million people rely on male condoms alone, but the typical effectiveness rate is only eighty two percent. That’s over a million unintended pregnancies caused solely by faulty condoms. There are still many males who don’t use any form of contraceptives because they are inconvenient or restrict pleasure, but taking one pill a day could easily transform lives.
In conclusion, oral contraceptives for male should be regarded with enthusiasm from women and men alike. Birth control pills specifically for men could be vital in the future for preventing unwanted pregnancies, and changing the ways families are set up today. Birth control has come a long ways from barriers made of animal guts, and we should continue to work to make contraception and reproductive understanding easy and appealing for both sexes in order to move forward as a society.