Vaselgel is too cheap to manufacture to get the funding it needs to bring it to market, that's why they have been trying for 20 years and haven't succeeded yet. In the US the rights are owned by a non profit Parsemu Foundation formed to fund it. It looks like their private partner NEXT Life Sciences is actually set to come to market with a vaselgel product in 2026 they are calling Plan A.
Interesting marketing choice comparing it to the Plan B pill.
If Plan A works, you don't need Plan B... 😄
I think that was always the point of the name. this would just be a new plan A.
From what I'm reading, they're not set to go to market; that's just their goal. Most recent article I found was middle of last year that they had raised more money and were hoping to go to human trials by the end of the year. That aligns with what I remember about Vasalgel from years ago - they had finally made it to monkey trials but their monkey study was not showing a consistent ability to return to virility with the second injection. I seem to remember the proposed reason being that vas deferens in the monkeys/apes they were testing with are actually more delicate than humans' and so humans should still likely be reversible. Last I heard, I believe they were trying to move forward on the human trial of proving that it works as a contraceptive, to be followed by a human trial showing reversibility. Then radio silence and funding issues. My assumption has always been that they struggled to jump to human trials because of the primate study results hurting the likelihood of reversibility. Hopefully they have reworked it to solve that, or maybe the acquisition and new funding is enough to just push through that regardless and see if humans will be fine.
A vasectomy in my twenties was the best decision I ever made.
10/10, would snip, tie and burn again.
I gave up on waiting for this tech to become available and just got a vasectomy.
They are going to need to work on their sales pitch...
Meanwhile, BDSM practitioners are thinking "two birds with one stone (to the nuts)"
More options are great I suppose, but as a gem-xer I don't get the modern revolt against the condom. Modern condoms are pretty damn thin / good and are a form of male birth control with bonus of very good disease prevention, have next to no side effects, and minimize messes too.
Modern?
Has it increased in some way over time? I think men not wanting to wear condoms because of how they feel is a tale as old as the condom itself.
Condoms suck for everyone involved
That's an interesting generalization. I'm going to to count myself out of everyone then.
IMO for anyone in a stable monoamorous relationship, the IUD is the superior option, as long as the female partner is a good fit for it and doesn't have complications from it.
It looks promising, even though it is quite far away from becoming available to the general public.
Still I wish that there was more of a push for something like a contraceptive pill for men. It feels like it has been ignored for years and only now they are starting a bit with development and trials...
I don't think it's been ignored. Birth control pills for men would be a massive money maker. (Here is a recent article I found on BC for men: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/male-contraceptive-disables-sperm)
While I am speaking way outside my confort zone here, it seems magnitudes harder to effectively disable millions of sperm and their associated production as opposed to simply knocking a woman's hormone balance a little out of whack to prevent ovulation.
The bigger question is being ignored though: If we have to inject our scrotum with a gel, where are we going to store our pee?????
We'll just have to pee out of our butts like girls do.
Unfortunately there has to be almost no side effects for almost all users, as there are no (as yet) medical benefits to male contraception.
In women, not being pregnant can prevent death for some of them, regulate painful periods, etc. - it is considered the risk of the myriad side effects is worth it because at least it does some good.
For men, who do not become pregnant, not being able to get someone else pregnant is not a medical benefit for the man.
And unfortunately hormonal modification does cause problems. Lots of them.
These reversable, injectable, male contraceptives have been promised for at least 5 years, when will they come to market?
A lot longer than that unfortunetly
Edit: Found an older link
I've been seeing promises about a new male contraceptive for more than a decade now. They never seem to hit the shelves form some reason.
RISUG has been in promised for what, nearly a decade now? This has been the FSD/Star Citizen of the male contraceptive world, always right around the corner.
Is this not the exact same thing as vasalgel? How is this new or different?
Not sure, this seems to be exactly what vasalgel is. At first, I thought the innovation was that they just squirt this stuff into your sack and call it a day, and that would have been different. But nope! Same injection site too. Maybe it's more effective or something.
Been trying this for 2 decades
Contraline’s method involves making a small piercing in the scrotum and using a handheld injector to push the hydrogel through a catheter that’s connected to the vas deferens. The catheter is then taken out, and the puncture heals on its own.
That sounds like a bit more than just an injection. Not quite like going in for a flu shot to the nuts
As a man, I always laugh when I see other men excited about the prospect of becoming sterile.
Can you explain why? Some people don't want to have kids. Why should the onus fall on only women with birth control and IUDs? More options for male contraceptives are a good thing.
Wonder what could go wrong here? Ever here of a Hydrocele?
Do you think female birth control is 100% safe and comfortable for women? Hydrocele are nothing compared to some of the adverse side affects of female birth control. Hydrocele only form in the thing sheath surrounding the testical, are do to physical irritation (not injected fluid), and usually go away on their own. Also, I'd imagine people smart enough to develop male birth control considered that exceptionally common alement.
bet politicians wont be lining up to regulate and ban this after 15 weeks
Wanna bet?
Oh Wired. You desperate clickbaiting bastards.
Ain’t no man getting a shot in the scrotum. Puh leeze.
Men already get cut open down there and then get their pipes cut and burned. A small injection that is reversible would actually be better. As long as it works very reliably (which it probably won't).
Hell, there have been cases where even the cutting healed by its own and suddenly they got someone pregnant.
Besides the risk for permanent pain in the area, a vasectomy is not 100% risk free unfortunately (or I would have done it years ago without hesitation).
How does it compare to Vasalgel?
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
