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In 1960, an invention revolutionized female sexuality and paved the way for the women's liberation movement. It was the birth-control pill, or simply "the pill" as it became popularly known. An estimated 18 million women in the United States use the birth-control pill today, making it the most popular form of reversible birth control in the country.

For four decades, the pill has put women primarily in the contraceptive driver's seat. But an increasing number of people -- both men and women -- want men to take a more active role in contraception use.


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Condoms are one of the few birth-control options available to men today.
Their wish may be granted in the foreseeable future, as research companies grow closer to revealing the first continuous, reversible male contraceptive pill.

In this article, we'll give you a sneak peak at the male pill, find out how it will work and explore whether it is poised to trigger a revolution of its own.

For the past four decades, women have a wide array of birth-control options available to them, including the pill, ring, patch and injection, that are all more than 99 percent effective. Yet as far as science has progressed with female birth control, there are still only a couple of birth-control options available to men: primarily the condom and vasectomy. Some men complain that the former reduces sensation during intercourse, and others wince at the thought of the surgical procedure that the second requires (not to mention the second surgical procedure required if they decide they want to reverse it).

Why has it taken researchers more than 40 years to come up with a male equivalent of the birth-control pill? One reason is that pharmaceutical companies haven't had much interest in -- and more importantly, haven't had much research funding for -- a male birth-control pill.

Thank You
 Thank you to Craig C. Freudenrich, Ph.D., for his assistance with this article.

The other reason stems from inherent differences in male and female anatomy. The female birth-control pill contains synthetic forms of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which prevent the ovaries from releasing an egg for fertilization. But unlike women, who release just one egg a month during a regular process of ovulation (see How Menstruation Works to learn more), men release about 120 million sperm with each ejaculation. It's a lot harder to control millions and millions of sperm than it is to control a single egg.

So how are researchers trying to tackle this biological issue?