Male Birth Control

In the event of an accidental pregnancy, especially a teen pregnancy, society seems to deem it the fault of the woman. While this could be linked to the misogynistic lean of American culture, it could also be looked at as the fault of society as a whole for not pushing for more accessible options for certain birth controls. Specifically, male birth control. Until recently, there were only three options of birth control for men; the pull-out method, condoms and vasectomy; all of which are risky or too permanent. So naturally this societally deemed responsibility has fallen to women, who have a variety of birth control options available to them such as the pill, shot, IUD, patch, and implant.  

However, it seems a little unfair that women should shoulder this responsibility on their own; pregnancy, after all, takes two. Attempts to make male birth control have been successful in the past, but the studies were closed after participants complained about the side effects. A World Health Organization study created a male birth control shot found to be 96% effective, yet after side effects of acne, mood swings, depression, and one suicide attempt were reported, the study was shut down.  

Interestingly, all of those side effects are the same for the female birth control pill. A recent study by Harvard suggests that all types of hormonal birth control comes with the risk of depression. Despite this, women continue to use birth control because men have proved they are unable to handle it. That’s not to say all men wouldn’t be willing to give it a try, but more often than not (as shown from the studies), they aren’t. 

Another interesting thing to note is that there are 61 million American women currently of reproductive age (15-44). Throughout a woman’s lifetime, 99% have/will use some form of hormonal contraceptive according to the Guttmacher Institute for advancing sexual and reproductive health worldwide. Knowing what we know about the side effects of hormonal birth control, which has been around since the 60’s, we can draw conclusions to women’s behavior. A common cultural stigma of America is that women are irrational and emotional beings. This has often been an excuse to “excuse” women from participating in things as large scale as military positions and influencing a vote for political office to smaller scale things as school children using feminine pronouns in a derogative way; for example, the classic, “you play like a girl.”  

Perhaps the behavior associated with women, such as moodiness, indecisiveness, and being overly emotional has something to do with a large portion of the female population being hormonally altered by a necessary drug.