With the overturning of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, attention has been turned toward improving contraceptives and their accessibility in the United States. No longer having abortion protected under the federal law, it is now more important than ever to give people options when it comes to preventing pregnancy. Historically, contraception has been viewed as the woman’s responsibility, since she is the one who risks pregnancy. However, in order for pregnancy to occur in the first place, there have to be two people involved, and therefore both should be held equally responsible for what happens. Expecting people who can get pregnant to take full responsibility for taking the pill or getting an IUD insertion, which forces them to deal with a number of side effects, is unreasonable. This is why research on male contraceptives, aside from just condoms and vasectomies, should have more resources and funding.

There are many reasons why there are not widespread, readily available male contraceptives. Some “experts say the success of the [female] pill may be partly responsible for the lag in development of male contraceptive options,” according to The Washington Post. Some people may argue why we should fix something that isn’t broken. However, just because it isn’t broken doesn’t mean that there is not room for improvement. Giving partners more options to prevent pregnancy is something that should be looked into more, especially with the recent shift in abortion laws in the United States. As Washington Post Columnist Susanna Schrobsdorff writes, it seems that the hard truth is that until “they can suffer the consequences of an unintended pregnancy, men aren’t likely to reliably take responsibility for birth control.” Funding for research has been a large issue because of this. In fact, “Drug companies … didn’t trust that men would use… [the pill] — despite surveys suggesting otherwise — so they wouldn’t invest in the large-scale clinical trials needed to show the Food and Drug Administration that the method is safe and effective,” according to The Lily. Other issues with developing a male contraceptive have to do with biology. “Men make millions and millions of sperm every day, whereas women only release one or two eggs per month, making it an easier reproductive process to target.” Instead of dealing with these male contraceptive issues, more resources were used to give women more options. While this should be continued, more methods for men should also be pushed forward.

Currently, the two contraceptive methods for men are condoms and vasectomies. While these have been effective, condoms are misused about 13 percent of the time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and vasectomies are not always reversible. There are three new main male contraceptives being researched. The first is the male contraceptive pill, which is non-hormonal and was found to be 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy when used on male mice. Human trials for this were scheduled to begin last year. The second option is a “hormonal gel called NES/T… which is applied to a man’s shoulders and upper arms once a day.” Finally, a non-hormonal injection known as ADAM blocks sperm in ejaculation and is currently in human trials. These all look promising, and the more funding they can get, the sooner more good contraceptive options can become available.

A big concern for the new male contraceptives is the possibility of side effects. The two drugs being used, Nestorone and Dimethandrolone (DMAU), increase hormone levels and suppress natural testosterone production, blocking sperm. However, men still retain relatively high testosterone levels while taking the drug, so there should be no side effects from this reduction. “DMAU can be taken as a once-daily pill or a long-acting injection, while Nestorone comes in a gel that is applied to the man’s shoulders and upper arms every day.” However, in some preliminary studies, subjects experienced weight gain and changes in sexual drive. Even so, people who use the female contraceptive pill have been dealing with these same symptoms and worse, such as blood clots and cancers, ever since their release onto the market. Having this delay in creating “an oral contraceptive for men” is further evidence of a pernicious double standard in reproductive health care. Schrobsdorff argued that “Men, as medical researchers put it, have a very ‘low threshold’ for side effects.” While it would obviously be ideal to have no negative side effects for either male or female contraceptives, it is unreasonable to expect those who take the female contraceptives to shoulder the burden in the meantime.

Sharing the contraceptive responsibility between both partners should be the standard, as both are equally as responsible for a pregnancy. As Krystale Littlejohn, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon and author of “Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics,” said, “Changing the ‘heavily gendered dynamic … is critical to the successful uptake of new male contraceptives.” The many options for male contraceptives should be better funded and further researched, so that they can become accessible to the public as soon as possible. This is more important now than ever, with people’s abortion options becoming limited in the United States. This research will better everyone involved, giving people more choice in a country where reproductive rights are becoming less and less protected.

Lily Tener is a sophomore double-majoring in psychology and English.