Why isn't there a birth control pill for men yet? Is there one in the works?

Apparently one’s in the works. Read the article here.

From what I’ve heard, it seems that it’d be harder to get men to take it. Since the woman is the one who actually carries the baby, it seems that women are more willing to take extra precautions surrounding pregnancy. And c’mon, some guys don’t even want to wear a condom – they can be LAZY.

It’d be a good idea. You can be sure I wouldn’t stop taking some form of birth control on my own though. It’s me who is going to have to give birth and I don’t want to, or think I could, trust anyone else with that kind responsibility.

I think there’s three reasons it hasn’t been a priority

1) You’d need to have an advantage over condoms, which are super cheap and extremely effective. You could argue convenience, but if you can’t remember to have a condom around, are you going to remember a pill?

2) Because there’s no cycle to work with, it would have to be a constant change to your hormones which is probably pretty tough to predict the long term effects of. Guys don’t have a natural “off” state you can mimic. So there’s a higher ‘scary’ quotient and might add some resistance to people starting up with it.

3) No protection against STDs, which gives an advantage to condoms

Like omfg said, it’s on the way, I just don’t think it’s a sure success so it hasn’t been a priority for drug companies to put money and resources into.

Great article, Tali, GA!

The main reason is that men do not have a set cycle as women do. Women release one egg per month, so it’s relatively easy to make a medicine to stop a predictable cycle like ovulation. Men, however, produce millions of sperm every day, so it’s a bit trickier to find something that would either stop production or make them infertile while not being permanent.
Once that medication IS made, though, the problem will be getting men to take it. For some reason a lot of men feel contraceptives are a woman’s responsibility, which is very unfortunate.