A reprint in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

• 来源期刊: 亚洲男性学杂志（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2005,（1）
• 页码范围: 93-96
• 页数: 4页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

The Male Pill* traces the kaleidoscopic history of hormonal methods of contraception for men, exploring why such methods have been so long in coming when those for women have been available for nearly 40 years.The common features of pituitary endocrine control,whereby gonadotropin withdrawal switches off the function of both gonads, could surely have led to the parallel development of such methods in both sexes, despite the widespread belief that millions of sperm daily were harder to suppress than a single egg ovulating each month. New male contraceptive methods could replace less effective male methods and would occupy niches, e.g., when delaying vasectomy, when female methods were not tolerated, and during the post-partum period. As an early investigator remarked, the much longer fertile life of men makes them a target population of great significance.