LA VOZ (De Anza College)
Nov. 28, 2007
(U-WIRE) CUPERTINO, Calif. – Birth control pills and other modern methods of contraception afford women a newfound freedom that many of our own mothers weren’t able to enjoy, but this freedom goes hand in hand with greater accountability.
Women shouldn’t have to shoulder this burden alone, however. Men also need to step in.
Unfortunately, they rarely do. If anything, women commonly complain of being unable to motivate their male partners just to wear condoms.
A woman’s body has enough difficulties without the added ups and downs that invariably come with “the pill.”
The female repertoire of experiences includes monthly menstruation cycles, menopause, pregnancy and abortion in some cases.
Birth control is a product that could’ve been and should’ve been developed for men at the same time the progesterone pill was researched for women.
Pills for women have been in development since the early 1900s, yet today there are still only two viable options for men: condoms or a vasectomy. Most men aren’t particularly fond of either.
Granted, it’s decidedly more difficult to control the millions of new sperm produced in the male testes every day than it is to control the single egg that is produced each month from the ovary, but the predominant reason for lack of research in this arena has absolutely nothing to do with reproductive biology.
Just like with any other product, supply will naturally follow demand. True, millions of dollars are necessary to actualize any preliminary research, but without a backer that is willing to fund projects, this will simply never happen.
Therefore, the responsibility in this case falls upon everyday consumers: we need to speak up. Yet due to the unfair social mores surrounding birth control, this remains a greatly under-researched field.
This lack of demand for shared responsibility is disappointing. Times continue to change and more research is being done in the field of male contraception, but for many of us women, this is too little, too late.
