Nonhormonal Birth Control for Males Found Safe, Effective in Human Trials

Scientists are closing in on the first-ever birth control pill for men.

YCT-529, the first hormone-free birth control for males, was determined safe and effective in its first human trial in 2024. Although the trial was small, with only eight male participants in each of the two cohorts, the results were promising enough to greenlight the drug for further studies in humans.

Now, YCT-529 has passed an important safety test in a second human clinical trial and could soon debut as the first nonhormonal oral birth control pill for men. The results were published on July 22 in Communications Medicine.

The trial included 16 healthy males ages 32 to 59 who had previously undergone a vasectomy, which was a precaution researchers took to avoid any permanent impacts of the drug on their fertility.

In the first clinical trial of its kind, a nonhormonal oral contraceptive that reversibly stops sperm production has just been deemed safe for human use. The nonhormonal oral contraceptive is a once-daily pill designed to block a vitamin A metabolite in the testes to restrict the production of sperm.



The trial only assessed for safety and didn’t examine the overall effectiveness of blocking sperm production, however. YourChoice Therapeutics, the manufacturer of the drug, is currently conducting more trials to determine this effect.

New Speculum, Who’s This?

Why has one of the most widely used tools in gynecological care barely changed in two millennia? “Because it has to do with women’s health, and women’s health doesn’t get enough money or attention,” said Carrie Sopata, a gynecologist and professor at the University of Virginia. In the past, patient comfort during pelvic exams was an afterthought, if it was thought about at all. The only thing that mattered was the doctor’s ability to do the job.

But over the past decade, Sopata said, “we’ve started to think more about pain and to pay more attention to what patients tell us—and try to believe them.”

In the widespread dissatisfaction with a common device, some have seen an opening for lucrative innovation. The Yona, a prototype that hasn’t made it into production, features metal covered in silicone, which preserves a comfortable temperature and can be sterilized in an autoclave. The Lilium, developed by researchers at a Dutch university who recently concluded a crowdfunding campaign to support further testing, features three leaves that spread open like a flower when a patient deploys a tampon-like applicator. The Nella, the only one of these that is currently available for purchase, boasts a narrower duckbill and a one-handed locking mechanism for clinicians.

The creators of new-edition specula speak of their products not just as gentler alternatives but as critical tools for public health. Cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable with regular screenings every few years, but about 1 in 4 women is not up to date. Studies have shown that people who believe that Pap smears are painful are less likely to schedule regular screenings, contributing to thousands of preventable cervical cancer cases and deaths in the U.S. each year.

Common vaginal condition is really an STD, study finds

For half of all women with bacterial vaginosis, the infection returns after completion of a week of antibiotics, the preferred medical treatment for BV, said first author Lenka Vodstrcil, a senior research fellow at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre at Monash University in Australia.

“The bacteria that cause BV can be located in men, especially in penile skin and also in the urethra,” Vodstrcil said in a news release. “This suggests that BV is probably sexually transmitted, and that is why so many women get it back again after treatment.”

Symptoms of BV can include itching, pain while urinating, an odd odor and a thin, white vaginal discharge. For some women, however, BV is a silent predator, attacking without such telltale symptoms.

If left untreated, bacterial vaginosis can increase the risk of acquiring HIV as well as sexually transmitted infections, according to the World Health Organization. Women with BV can also develop an infection in the fallopian tubes, ovaries or uterus called pelvic inflammatory disease, the WHO states on its website.

Some types of HPV may affect men's fertility, new study suggests

Most research about HPV’s potential impact on fertility has focused on women. But in recent years, researchers have increasingly expanded their focus to include the infection’s association with male fertility.

A new study from Argentinian researchers has found that the strains of HPV considered high risk because of their links to cancer were not only more common than low-risk strains in a small study population of men, they also appeared to pose a greater threat to sperm quality.

The study, published Friday in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, found that high-risk HPV appears to suppress key components of the immune system in the male genital tract. This could hamper the body’s ability to clear HPV, a process that typically takes about six months to a year after infection, while raising the risk of other infections that may also compromise male fertility.

“Individuals often have no symptoms or signs, yet still carry HPV in the male genital tract,” said the study’s senior author, Virginia Rivero, a professor of immunology at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina.

A 2020 systematic review of 50 studies found that 21% of infertile men had HPV-positive semen, compared with 8% in the general male population. Even after accounting for female infertility, men with HPV in their semen had three-fold greater odds of being infertile than those without the virus.