WEDNESDAY, June 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A novel male contraceptive gel suppresses sperm production faster than other hormone-based methods for male birth control, according to a phase 2 study presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, held from June 1 to 4 in Boston.
Danielle Gross, from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues assessed the time to sperm suppression (concentration ≤1 million/mL) with daily self-administration of segesterone acetate (8 mg)/testosterone (74 mg) combination gel in 222 healthy men.
The researchers found that 86 percent of participants achieved suppression to ≤1 million/mL during treatment. One in five participants (21 percent) were suppressed to ≤1 million/mL at five weeks, which increased to 52 percent by eight weeks and 64 percent by nine weeks. The median time for those achieving suppression was eight weeks, with 82 percent suppressed within 12 weeks and 86 percent at 15 weeks of initiating treatment.
"The development of a safe, highly effective and reliably reversible contraceptive method for men is an unmet need," senior author Diana Blithe, Ph.D., also of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement. "While studies have shown that some hormonal agents may be effective for male contraception, the slow onset of spermatogenic suppression is a limitation."
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