These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Prospects for new hormonal male contraceptives.
    Author: Cummings DE, Bremner WJ.
    Journal: Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am; 1994 Dec; 23(4):893-922. PubMed ID: 7705326.
    Abstract:
    Overpopulation is a paramount global crisis, as it underlies virtually all major worldwide problems, including poverty, malnutrition, and warfare. It is imperative that proliferation be curbed by expediting reductions in fertility. This article discusses the demand for and acceptability of male contraceptives and the process of spermatogenesis. Endocrine control of spermatogenesis, and potential sites for disruption of male fertility, including steroid combinations and GnRH agonists and antagonists are reviewed also. Risks and benefits of these approaches are considered. Despite a social trend in support of greater male involvement in fertility regulation, currently available male-oriented methods (e.g., condoms, coitus interruptus, and vasectomy) are flawed and lack widespread acceptability. Most experimental methods target the development, maturation, or ultimate function of sperm cells. This article focuses on efforts to develop an improved hormonal contraceptive for men that inhibits gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), gonadotropins, or both, using either exogenous steroids or GnRH analogs. Although GnRH antagonists suppress gonadotropins more rapidly and completely than any known agents and their pituitary effects are immediately reversible, these agents are currently unmarketable due to their high cost, insufficient potency, and impractical delivery systems. To ensure fertility, both follicle-stimulating hormone and intratesticular testosterone must be eliminated. Thus, any technique that suppresses gonadotropins must include testosterone replacement. The effects of prolonged testosterone administration on hypertrophy have not been determined. No candidate for reversible systemic male contraception is likely to achieve general marketability in the immediate future due to a combination of factors, including fundamental knowledge voids about the molecular control of spermatogenesis and a lack of financial support from pharmaceutical companies for research in this area.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]