The aim of hormonal male contraception is to prevent unintended pregnancies by suppressing spermatogenesis. Hormonal male contraception is based on the principle that exogenous administration of androgens and other hormones such as progestins suppress circulating gonadotropin concentrations, decreasing testicular Leydig cell and Sertoli cell activity and spermatogenesis. In order to achieve more complete suppression of circulating gonadotropins and spermatogenesis, a progestin has been added testosterone to the most recent efficacy trials of hormonal male contraceptives. This review focusses on the potential effects of male hormonal contraceptives on cardiovascular risk factors, lipids and body composition, mainly in the target group of younger to middle-aged men. Present data suggest that hormonal male contraception can be reasonably regarded as safe in terms of cardiovascular risk. However, as all trials have been relatively short (< 3 years), a final statement regarding the cardiovascular safety of hormonal male contraception, especially in long-term use, cannot be made. Older men with at high risk of cardiovascular event might not be good candidates for hormonal male contraception. The potential adverse effects of hormonal contraceptives on cardiovascular risk appear to depend greatly on the choice of the progestin in regimens for hormonal male contraceptives. In the development of prospective hormonal male contraception, data on longer-term cardiovascular safety will be essential.
Age Factors ; Androgens/therapeutic use* ; Antispermatogenic Agents ; Cardiovascular Diseases/epidemiology* ; Contraceptive Agents, Male/therapeutic use* ; Gonadotropins/metabolism* ; Humans ; Male ; Progestins/therapeutic use* ; Testosterone/therapeutic use*

BACKGROUND: There is a dearth of studies that explore the perceptions of male partners of adolescent females towards the intention of pursuing contraception.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the role of male partner perceptions in the intention to use of contraception among female adolescents to prevent unplanned repeat pregnancies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: An urban sample of 102 male partners of female adolescents with previous pregnancy experience coming from the out-patient department and selected barangay health center responded to a two-part questionnaire that explored their perceptions towards contraception. Demographic data and their positive and negative views, attitudes and actual practice of contraception as it affects future intention to engage in family planning methods were determined.

RESULTS: Male sexual partners have positive perceptions towards contraception. Despite this, utilization rate was still low (56.8%). Positively correlated with contraceptive intention include the male partner's advanced age and high level of education. Perceptions that favor strong intention include careful pregnancy planning in the future, not wanting a pregnancy too soon, knowledge of a specific method, its perceived benefits, "shared decision" making, feeling "happy" when contraceptives are offered rather than forced and when a woman lacks trust in him. Forcing contraception by the female adolescent partner was negatively correlated with contraceptive intention.

CONCLUSION: Shared decision making towards contraception in order to reduce unintended pregnancies should engage the male partner's participation by correcting prevailing misperceptions.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Young Adult ; Adolescent ; Pregnancy ; Family Planning Services ; Contraceptive Agents ; Sexual Partners ; Outpatients ; Contraception ; Pregnancy, Unplanned ; Contraceptive Devices

The ideal goal of male immunocontraception is to develop a safe, effective, convenient, acceptable and reversible contraceptive vaccine. Current studies mainly focus on screening the most suitable target antigens from reproductive hormones and sperm functional proteins for the development of immuno contraceptive vaccines. The vaccine targeting reproductive hormones has not been widely used due to its different degrees of side effects and complicated operation. Recent studies show the practicability and applicability of the immuno contraceptive vaccine targeting sperm specific antigens, but its development is confronted with many challenges, such as how to select appropriate target antigens, how to enhance the immunogenicity of the vaccine, how to choose appropriate drug-delivery ways, how to reduce its side effects, and how to decrease its cost.
Antigens ; immunology ; Contraception, Immunologic ; methods ; Contraceptive Agents, Male ; immunology ; Humans ; Male ; Vaccines ; immunology

It has become more and more urgent to develop a safe, effective, recoverable and acceptable contraceptive for males. Decades of studies have made much progress on male hormonal contraception, one of the promising contraceptive methods. The principle is based on the suppression of pituitary gonadotropin and intratesticular testosterone, then the suppression of spermatogenesis, and the supplement of androgen to maintain the male characteristics and sexual function. There are many male hormonal contraceptive methods being studied include androgen, androgen combined with progesterone, GnRH antagonists combined with androgen, as well as immunological methods. To develop a safe and convenient androgen preparation with longer action and fewer side effects is also one of the key items of present research in this field.
Androgens ; Animals ; Contraception ; methods ; Contraceptive Agents, Male ; Contraceptives, Oral, Hormonal ; Humans ; Male ; Mice ; Progestins ; Rats ; Sheep

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate differences of subjective, objective knowledge and educational need about contraceptives according to sex in college students. METHODS: Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire from 84 male and 111 female college students on May, 2008. PASW 18.0 program was used for data analysis. RESULTS: There were significant differences in age, major, grade, place of residence, and experience of sexual intercourse between male and female college students. There was a significant difference in objective knowledge about contraceptives between the two groups, but no significant difference in subjective knowledge. The positive correlation was shown between subjective and objective knowledge about contraceptives. Even when demographic variables such as age, major, grade, place of residence, and experience of sexual intercourse were controlled, sex was a significant influencing factor on subjective and objective knowledge about contraceptives. Educational need about emergency contraceptive pills was significantly different and ranking of educational need about contraceptives was also different between the two groups. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that different education programs according to sex are needed to maximize the effect of contraceptive education and sexual characteristics are considered to give an education to college students.
Coitus ; Contraceptive Agents ; Emergencies ; Female ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Male ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Ophthalmoplegia ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge and attitude about oral contraceptive between Korean and Japanese university students in order to provide better sex education programs and direcrion.Korean subjects of this study were 337 university students in M city, during the period from April 1 to April 20, 2001 and Japanese subjects 245, during the period from June to August, 2001. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS package. The results from this study were summarized as follows :1. The mean age of Koreans and Japanese students was 21.0+/-3.2 and 19.6+/-3.2 years old. The number of Japaneses youths having the parter with sexual intercourse was larger than that of Korean university students. 2. Comparison of knowledge and attitude about oral contraceptives between Korean and Japanese university students ;1) Comparison of sexual differences : Oral contraceptives related knowledge of Korean university students marked 55.7+/-7.5 of male students and 56.7+/-6.2 of females with a range of 15 to 75. The level of female students' knowledge was higher than that of male's but there is not statistically a significant difference (p= .080). Oral contraceptives related attitude of Korean university students marked 81.1+/-12.2 of male students and 76.9+/-10.3 of female's with a range of 24 to 120. The level of male students' attitude was higher than that of female's and there is statistically a significant difference(p= .002). Oral contraceptives related knowledge of Japanese university students marked 55.3+/-6.7 of male students and 57.0+/-6.3 of female students. The level of female students' knowledge was higher than that of male's but there is not statistically a significant difference (p= .159). Oral contraceptives related attitude of Japanese university students marked 80.3+/-10.1 of male students and 80.4+/-9.9 of female students. The level of female students' attitude was higher than that of male's and there is not statistically a significant difference(p= .928).2) Comparison between the country : Oral conceptives related knowledge of Korean university students marked 56.2+/-6.8 and 56.7+/-6.4 of Japanese university students with a range of 15 to 75. The level of Japanese university students' knowledge was higher than that of Korean's but there is not statistically a significant difference(p= .361). Oral conceptives related attitude of Korean university students marked 78.9+/-11.4 and 80.4+/-9.9 of Japaneses with a range of 24 to 120. The level of Japanese university studentss' attitude was higher than that of Korean's and there is not statistically a significant difference(p= .100). 2. Wanted age of oral contraceptives taking medicine and age was correlated positively (r=.178, p=.004) and total knowledge score of oral contraceptives and total attitude score were correlated positively(r=.467 p= .000) in Korean university students. Wanted age of oral contraceptives taking medicine and age was correlated positively (r=.289, p=.004), age and total attitude score were correlated positively(r=.196 p=.002) and total knowledge score of oral contraceptives and total attitude score were correlated positively (r=.671 p=.000) in Japanese university students. 3. Korean university students lifted side effect by the greatest factors in investigation about leading person that disturb work oral contraceptive, and the following appeared by knowledge insufficiency, sexual feeling inflammation worry, social prejudice, sexual morality decline, supernumerary prescription being not right, other person reverse and economical burden. Japanese university students can know that it is appearing by side effect, supernumerary prescription being not right, knowledge insufficiency, sexual feeling inflammation worry, economical burden, social prejudice, sexual morality decline and other person reverse. Think that this is result by dissimilar health medical system and cultural difference between two countries.
Adolescent ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Coitus ; Contraceptive Agents ; Contraceptives, Oral ; Female ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Male ; Morals ; Prejudice ; Prescriptions ; Sex Education

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the inhibitory effect of Nandeshi, an acrosin inhibitor, on human acrosin activity.

METHODSWe collected sperm samples from 10 healthy fertile men and cultured them with Nandeshi at 30 degrees C for 5 minutes at the concentrations of 0. 100, 0.120, 0.144, 0.173, 0.207, 0.249, 0.299, 0.358 and 0.430 mmol/L, with the controls treated with a well-known acrosin inhibitor N-alpha-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethylketone (TLCK) at 150.0, 189.8, 213.6, 240.3, 270.3, 304.1 and 342.1 mmol/L. Then we determined the residual activity of human acrosin by improved Kennedy assay.

RESULTSThe residual activity of acrosin was negatively correlated with the Nandeshi concentration, and Nandeshi exhibited an inhibition rate about 800 times that of TLCK.

CONCLUSIONNandeshi has a powerful inhibitory effect on human acrosin, and improved Kennedy assay is a simple, practical and highly sensitive technique for the detection of human acrosin activity.

Acrosin ; antagonists & inhibitors ; metabolism ; Contraceptive Agents, Female ; pharmacology ; Enzyme Inhibitors ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Male ; Spermatozoa ; drug effects ; Tosyllysine Chloromethyl Ketone ; pharmacology

OBJECTIVETo study the antifertility and anti-inflammatory effects of compound Kucen gel in vivo.

METHODSAs antifertility experiment, we randomly divided 60 female SD rats into six groups of equal number: normal saline, blank gel, low-, medium- and high-dose compound Kucen gel (0.05, 0.10 and 0.15 g/g), and positive control (4% nonoxynol gel) to receive intravaginal administration of 200 microl of respective agent, followed by copulation with male rats in a 1:1 ratio. At 12 days after successful mating, the female rats were dissected for calculation of the embryos and the rate of contraception. As an anti-inflammatory trial, we established a mouse model of inflammation by applying xylene to the pinna, and equally randomized 60 Kunming mice to six groups as in the former experiment. We determined the degrees and average rates of swelling inhibition in the left ear.

RESULTSHigh-dose compound Kucen gel achieved a fertility-inhibition rate of 100% in the female rats, the number of embryos significantly lower than in the normal saline group (0.00 +/- 0.00 vs 11.00 +/- 2. 00, P < 0.05), but with no statistically insignificant difference from that of the positive control (0.00 +/- 0.00, P > 0.05). High-dose compound Kucen gel also markedly suppressed swelling in the left ear of the mice, with an inhibition rate of 52.3%, the average swelling degree significantly lower than in the normal saline group (10.17 +/- 2.56 vs 21.32 +/- 3.17, P < 0.01), but not remarkably different from that of the positive control (8.53 +/- 1.89, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONCompound Kucen gel, with its strong antifertility and anti-inflammatory effects, deserves further study and clinical application.

Animals ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; pharmacology ; Contraceptive Agents ; pharmacology ; Disease Models, Animal ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Gels ; Inflammation ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred Strains ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Sperm maturation in the epididymis is regulated by changes of luminal ion concentration and processing of sperm surface membrane by several glycosidases and proteases, and the actions of the proteases are controlled by protease inhibitors present in specific areas of the epididymis. WFDC-type serine protease inhibitors that are highly expressed in the epididymis play an important role in natural immunity and male reproduction. This paper gives an overview of the structure and function of the protein and its application prospects in the development of drugs for male reproductive tract infection and immunocontraception.
Anti-Infective Agents ; therapeutic use ; Contraceptive Agents ; Epididymal Secretory Proteins ; metabolism ; Epididymis ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Humans ; Male ; Serine Proteinase Inhibitors ; genetics ; metabolism ; therapeutic use

More and more study on the epididymal function and sperm maturation has shown that epididymis will be one of the best target organs of male contraception, although at present there is not a male contraceptive medicine based on epididymis for clinical practice. The promoting research aspects in epididymal contraception in animal included affecting directly epididymis (such as Sulpasalazine), interfering energy metabolism and sperm mobility (such as Chlorinated Glycerol), altering the internal environment of epididymis (such as copper particles and TW19). The epididymal specific proteins could bring out some new target antigens for immunological contraception, to produce contraceptive vaccine. Some special genes, which expressed distinctively in epididymis such as SC342, bin1, have been cloned and studied on their function. These works would be helpful not only for clinical diagnosis and treatment of epididymitis and male infertility, but also for male contraceptive research and progress.
Contraception ; Contraceptive Agents, Male ; pharmacology ; Energy Metabolism ; drug effects ; Epididymis ; drug effects ; physiology ; Humans ; Male ; Sperm Maturation ; drug effects ; Sperm Motility ; drug effects