A birth control pill for men has passed initial human safety tests, experts at a leading medical conference have heard.
The once-daily pill contains hormones designed to stop sperm production.
It would be a welcome addition to condoms or vasectomy – the only options currently available to men.
But doctors at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting were told it could still take a decade to bring it to market.
The female pill was launched in the UK more than 50 years ago. So why is a male pill proving so difficult?
Some say there has been less societal and commercial will to get a male pill off the ground – but opinion polls suggest many men would consider taking it if a pill did become available.
Whether women would trust men to reliably take it is another issue.
A UK survey by Anglia Ruskin University, in 2011, found 70 out of 134 women would worry that their male partner would forget to take a pill.
Biologically, the challenge of creating a hormone-based pill for men is making sure that it doesn’t blunt sex drive or reduce erections.
