Who’s Your Daddy?

Men in Manchester and Edinburgh are taking part in a two-year trial for an injectable male contraceptive.

Comments by readers on this article talk of an end to men being tricked into supporting children who are not theirs.

When will men learn that this is a mostly a myth, perpetuated by other men, and that the vast majority of women want to have children with a loving and caring partner who wants to be with them?!

Besides, there are plenty of men who would be just as likely to trick their partners by forgetting their birth control and getting their girlfriends pregnant if the shoe were on the other foot. I knew a woman whose fiancé took her pills out of the packet in the hopes that she would think she had already taken them that day because he wanted kids but she wasn’t ready for them yet.

There are people who are willing to trick others into parenthood of both genders, but they are few and far between.

Perhaps I’m overestimating the maturity and intelligence of most couples, but I would like to believe that the majority of people who are willing to forgo condoms are in relationships where fertility is a shared responsibility. They share expenses of birth control and have agreements about what to do if a pregnancy happens. If a woman is allergic to hormones they use condoms or another barrier method.

It takes two to tango and allowing some of the physical burden to be taken up by the men in these couples will be a great relief for some women. Again, it is still a shared responsibility so if the men in these relationships have side-effects to the male contraceptive the couple will again negotiate their fertility in a way that works best for them as a couple.

This new contraceptive works by injecting men with artificial hormones that “tricks the body into shutting off sperm production”.

“Doctors say it is effective in 99 per cent of cases and sperm counts should rapidly return to normal once the injections are stopped”. No serious side-effects are expected “although some men may experience hot flushes, mood swings or acne”.

I hope by the time it gets to the market, about five years from now, the myth of fear of being tricked into parenthood has died down and people have come to their senses — but maybe it never will.

This is a great invention, and not because it will stop the uncertainty of lineage, but because it will finally allow couples to have options in sharing responsibility for their fertility.