Long-Lasting And Reversible Male Contraceptive Could Be Ready Within 5 Years

Trending News: Men Might Finally Have A Better Long-Term Contraceptive Option Than Vasectomies

Why Is This Important?

Because men could finally have a contraceptive that doesn't involve the feared snip snip.

Long Story Short

A young entrepreneur out of the University of Virginia has come up with an exciting idea for a male contraceptive gel that blocks sperm, but is easily reversible if you change your mind. And unlike vasectomies, the product won't involve having surgery. The team out of the University of Virginia is expecting to start rat trials in the next few weeks and predicts it could have a product on the market within five years.

Long Story

Ahh the ol' snip snip. There's perhaps no greater decision in a man's life than getting a vasectomy. Besides being a life-long commitment (that's the idea anyway), there could be some painful side effects associated.

What if there was a way to commit to not having babies without having surgery and with the ability to safely reverse the procedure if you ever change your mind? That dreamy birth control idea could be upon us with the invention of Echo-V — a long-lasting, non-hormonal and reversible male contraceptive gel. And somehow, this revolutionary idea slipped past scientists for years and is being pursued by a 22-year-old fresh out of the University of Virginia.

“Originally I was trying to solve the problem of neutering in animals," said Contraline's CEO and founder Kevin Eisenfrats to AskMen, who came up with the idea when he was 21.

But Eisenfrats eventually decided that we men could use a better alternative to vasectomies or from simply using condoms for the rest of our lives. Sorry pups.

"Right now it's an ethical problem that men don’t have a good appealing contraceptive," he added.

Now Contraline is just weeks away from clinical trials in rats and has accrued $700,000 in funding.

Essentially, Echo-V is a polymer gel that is injected into you and then guided into your vas deferens (the tubes that transport sperm through to the urethra) using an ultrasound. The procedure, which Contraline has dubbed Vasintomy, will allow the gel to work as a stopper for the sperm, sort of like a male version of an IUD.

But while vasectomies don't let sperm or any of the good stuff like proteins get through, Echo-V works like a coffee strainer and only keeps out the sperm, thereby allowing the rest of the seminal fluid through. And that means (in theory because there haven't been any clinical trials yet) it won't cause any pain from the buildup that can sometimes come with vasectomies.

“If you think about it, if you have a buildup of pressure, it goes backwards. That creates the buildup of pain that some patients go through after a vasectomy," said Eisenfrats. "Not only may we have a procedure that’s not a surgical alternative and potentially reversible, but there’s also medical benefits."

The idea wasn't exactly Eisenfrats' alone. His research in college led him to an "injectable vasectomy" procedure called RISUG (Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance), that has been in the works in India for decades now, but has never gotten approval. Echo-V is different from RISUG in that it doesn't involve surgery; it's imageable through an ultrasound, so you can check on it down the line; and it's reversible — something that's pretty important considering that as many as 5 out of 10 men who get a vasectomy choose to reverse it even though there's no guarantee the procedure will work, according to Eisenfrats.

Contraline's procedure on the other hand, could be easily reversed by being flushed out, effectively setting your baby making powers back to normal.

"We could seriously have a product on the market in 4 to 5 years," said Eisenfrats.

There is a caveat, though. We know condoms are super annoying, but unfortunately you'll still have to use them since Echo-V won't do anything to stop STDs.

"I personally don’t think this is a replacement for condoms," said Eisenfrats, who added that he expects his biggest customers to be in longterm monogamous relationships anyway.

As an added bonus, because the gel can be tracked in the body years down the line using an ultrasound to make sure everything's A-okay, doctors will be able to offer guys a printout for memorabilia to know how their gel sperm wall is holding up, similar to a baby ultrasound. A cute souvenir for the fridge, don't you think?

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Will Contraline make it to the market?

Disrupt Your Feed

We've needed an alternative to the female pill and vasectomies for far too long now.

Drop This Fact

Of the 1.5 billion sexually active men in the world, 73 percent rely on the woman for contraception, according to Contraline.