On the issue of contraception, it seems that everyone has some identical [valuing women over men]. However, a piece of news has made Sa Jie see some different dawn, so I’d like to share it with you today:
According to a report by the Times of India on November 20, India’s injectable male contraceptive pill has completed clinical trials and is awaiting approval from the Indian Drug Administration. The drug is called RISUG, which is injected and valid for 13 years. 303 people took part in the third phase of clinical trials, with a success rate of 97.3% and no side effects reported.
What kind of thing is this RISUG?
The full name of RISUG is Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance. Accurately speaking, RISUG is not a drug, but a contraceptive method. Chinese can be translated as “guided reversible inhibition technology of sperm”.
In fact, Sa Jie read some reports about it a long time ago. It is the same as an injection, but it does not hit the buttocks or arms, but makes a small incision in the scrotum. After exposing the vas deferens, an artificial gel called Vasalgel is injected into the vas deferens of men.
It only takes a few minutes for the gel to form a transparent coating on the vas deferens wall.
RISUG injected Vasalgel was formed from 60 mg of styrene/maleic anhydride (SMA) copolymer and 120 uL of solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO).
The copolymer is hydrolyzed by the action of water in semen to form positively charged hydrides, interfering with negative charges on the surface of sperm, destroying the cell membrane of sperm and enzymes necessary for acrosome reaction during fertilization, and depriving sperm of the ability to swim and bind to eggs (refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,075).
Phase I clinical trials of the drug began in India in 2002, but the trials were later suspended due to safety concerns.
By the time it stopped, 140 people had been injected with RISUG. However, the expert group later concluded that the main adverse reaction-painless scrotal edema in 1/3 patients for about a few weeks-was not serious enough to stop the test.
Since 2002, researchers have done a lot of research on the security of RISUG. The research results show that the security of RISUG is satisfactory.
Subsequently, in the Phase II clinical trial also conducted in India in 2012, the subjects could no longer detect motile sperm in the ejected semen 5 days after receiving RISUG. The contraceptive effect is estimated to last for more than 10 years. If a longer contraceptive effect is needed, the injection can be repeated every 10 years.
RISUG can be said to be the product of electrical engineering and biomedicine. Biogel material will generate electric charge, just as comb comb will generate static electricity at ordinary times. Gel material will achieve contraceptive effect by SMA polyelectrolyte effect, which will [tear] sperm through the place to achieve contraceptive effect, but does not affect the passage of other liquids.
This method was actually invented in India as early as 1970, but it has carried out many animal and human experiments, so it has not been published for a long time.
At present, the third phase of clinical experiments have proved that this contraceptive method can indeed be said to have a high success rate, and the key point is that once injected, its contraceptive effect can last as long as 13 years!
AaronHamlin, chief executive of the Male Contraceptive Initiative Association, said: “This thing will not ruin your life. You just need to put gel into the vas deferens and leave the hospital. The next time you want to have sex, what doesn’t have to prepare.”
Is this contraceptive method reversible?
After seeing this news report, Sa Jie raised this question in Zhihu to see what attitude everyone has towards this RISUG. The results show that what everyone is most concerned about is not only whether it will do any harm to the body, but also another question:
Your contraceptive effect is so lasting, in case I go back on my word in the middle and want to have another two or three children, is there any regret medicine?
Since it is called [reversibility], there is naturally one, and it seems relatively simple:
Some data show that if you don’t want contraception, then after injecting bicarbonate or dimethyl sulfoxide DMSO at the same position, the polymer is dissociated from the vas deferens wall through physical effects such as vibration, micro-current or transrectal massage, and then the baby can be normally needed.
Of course, as a new contraceptive method that has entered the third phase of clinical practice, the long-term application report is still insufficient, whether the reversibility is really so good, and whether there is any influence on future generations, these factors we do not have sufficient data at present, and we also need long-term observation and continuous attention.
At the beginning of seeing this principle of action, Sa Jie also thought:
Isn’t this a disguised ligation? When it comes to [ligation], many men are shocked: no, no, no, in case they cannot live as husband and wife, what can they do?
Every time I see this idea, Sa Jie wants to ask them:
Do you equate [ligation] with [castration]?
The ligation that men receive is vas deferens sterilization. The method is simple and crude, that is, the vas deferens cannot be blocked. Neither female nor male sterilization will affect the normal production of eggs and sperm.
Where is the sperm that continues to be produced?
The vast majority of sperm also disappear silently in the long river of time. A small number of people may produce sperm granuloma due to sperm deposition, resulting in painful nodules and even epididymal deposition.
Epididymal stasis is one of the main complications of male vasectomy.
After the vas deferens is blocked, although the seminiferous tubules in the testis can continuously produce sperm, they are in an inhibited state. The produced sperm cannot be discharged in time and deposit in the epididymis, causing obstruction symptoms of the epididymis.
However, it seems from the report that this RISUG method does not seem to have any troubles in this respect. After asking some friends around, it is found that most people are still interested in this new male contraceptive method. For example, some men think [alas, this needle can last for 13 years, how much money will be saved to buy condoms! ]
Sa Jie thinks that if this method can be successfully applied clinically, then it means not only that for men, there is an additional reliable contraceptive method, but also that the problem of contraception can be solved, and for women, there can be more choices.
At present, the contraceptive methods in our daily life, except condoms, are basically dominated by women, such as oral compound short-acting contraceptives, such as subcutaneous implantation of contraceptive devices, such as intrauterine placement of intrauterine contraceptives.
Although these contraceptive methods have been used for a long time, the adverse reactions brought by them, such as irregular vaginal bleeding, nausea, chest distension, lumbosacral soreness and other problems, and the pain of unwanted pregnancy, are often borne by women themselves.
It is also because of this that many men do not have enough awareness to participate in the [contraception], and even think that contraception is originally a female matter.
The innovation of male contraceptive methods can be said to be one of the necessary conditions for men to improve their awareness of contraceptive safety.
Some people once thought that Chinese women often bear too heavy sexual repression, because subconsciously, this matter is shameful and ugly, and they cannot calmly obey their inner desires.
Although many people have put this [stigmatized] consciousness behind them today, in most cases, the desire is still dominated by men.
Complying with each other’s needs, satisfying each other and obeying the way each other likes, this has also created many women’s subconscious compromise, because the other party [does not like to wear condoms] and chooses to take emergency contraceptives, as a result, contraceptive failure is still on every day.
No matter in front of desire or in the choice of contraceptive methods, men and women should always stand on the starting point of equality and mutual benefit, rather than one side unconditionally obeying the other.
When there are more feasible options, it also means that there are more ways for both sides to reach a consensus.
The real equality between men and women should not only be reflected in social work and roles, but also in our gender relations.
And [contraception] is an inevitable part of the relationship between the two sexes. I hope these new methods will make the choices placed in front of each pair of men and women realize real [equality] in the near future.
