The Birth Control Gender War

Being a woman has never been easy.

In the 1960's, it became a little easier.

Some credit the birth control pill to have sparked the entire sexual revolution of the 1960s, allowing women to explore their sexuality with more freedom by lessening the odds of becoming pregnant. Birth control became a blessing to millions of women all over the world.

But things have changed.

Today, the struggle between men and women to maintain equal roles in the relationship has inevitably caused the gender issue of birth control to arise. The patch, the ring, the shot, the implant, and the intrauterine device arrived shortly after the development of the pill. But as the most reliable forms of birth control, they are made only for women. With the developments made in female contraception, women have been burdened by the responsibility of taking birth control because other options made for men, such as the condom, are not as reliable or as effective. Because the birth control pill received such positive response in the 60s, researchers have focused their studies on female contraception. But who decided that birth control is only the woman's responsibility?

Hello, male birth control pill.

The development of the male birth control pill has been slow, but forthcoming. According to Seattle researchers, men may soon have the options of a daily oral pill, a patch or gel to be applied to the skin, an injection given every three months or an implant placed under the skin every 12 months. Several tests have been conducted on lab mice over the past few years that have concluded that male hormonal contraceptives not only just as well as the female ones do, but may actually be safer.

Side-effects of the male birth control pill include headaches, dizziness and weight gain. But such symptoms have been found to be of significantly lower-risk compared to those related to female birth control methods, including nausea, mood swings, depression, and blood clots, which could eventually lead to heart attacks. And while there are only certain types of women who are eligible to take certain birth control methods, so far, every male is considered a candidate for the male birth control pill. Furthermore, women who have had problems in the past with contraceptives due to allergies or a dislike of needles or pills can be relieved at the option of having her partner take on the responsibility of contraception. Most importantly, with the use of both male and female contraceptives, the chances of pregnancy will be reduced significantly-a type of double protection that cannot be provided by any other means but by the shared responsibility of both the male and the female.

But will men even consider this alternative?

According to a new MSN-Zogby poll, only 13 percent of American men said they would use it. But the development of male contraceptives has been slow because researchers do not see it as a priority. However, many proponents of the male birth control pill argue that the pill must be available before making such judgments.

"It's a basic human right to be able to decide when to have a child, and the tools that men have for doing that are not ideal," Elaine Lissner, director of the San Francisco-based Male Contraception Information Project said in a seedmagazine.com interview. "You can't say that men aren't willing to participate if you don't have good choices for them."

Granted, being a man has never been easy either.

Birth control for men would not only take the decades-old burden of birth control from women, but would also give males more control over unintended pregnancies, reducing the number of situations involving paternity suits and high child support. Presently, the only reasonably effective birth control methods for men are condoms, vasectomies and abstinence. But within the next two or three years, new types of safe and reversible contraceptives could be on the market.

When the option of male contraception becomes readily available, men and women will be given the equal opportunity to decide for themselves who it will be to take on the responsibility of birth control. It is the happy ending to the story that began with the 1960s sexual revolution, granting sexual freedom to women on yet another level and including men in the process as well.

• The Pill
  
• The Patch
  
• The Ring
  
• The Shot
  
• The Implant
  
• The Intrauterine Device
  

• The Pill
  
• The Patch
  
• The Gel
  
• The Shot
  
• The Implant
  

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