Research

Research

Researchers Seek Better Male Contraceptives

More than a third of all pregnancies in the world are unintended, according to the World Health Organization. Yet contraception choices are limited in most developing countries, and no reversible contraceptive for men has been marketed since the condom was introduced hundreds of years ago.

Dr. William Bremner, the Robert G. Petersdorf professor and chair of the Department of Medicine, and his colleagues are hoping to change that situation by discovering more contraceptive choices for men. Such advances could help reduce unintended pregnancies in developing countries, because men have proven willing to use contraceptives.


	Men have few birth control options.

"Nearly one-third of contraception in the United States is now accomplished by male techniques: 15 percent by vasectomy and 15 percent by condoms," said Bremner. "We wish to provide hormonal methods that are fully effective and may have additional health benefits, for example, in preventing prostate disease."

In October 2002 the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) awarded the UW a five-year, $9.5 million grant for an interdisciplinary Male Contraception Research Center. Bremner, the center's director and one of its principal investigators, is also the 2003 vice-president and president-elect of the American Society of Andrology. Other principal investigators are Dr. Robert Braun, associate professor of genome sciences; Dr. Joseph Beavo, Jr., professor of pharmacology; and Dr. Michael Griswold, professor of molecular biosciences at Washington State University.

The UW Male Contraception Research Center is part of the National Institutes of Health Cooperative Contraceptive Research Centers Program. Other centers are at the University of California, Davis, and the Population Council of Rockefeller University, New York.

The UW Center has three research projects in the Departments of Medicine, Genome Sciences, and Pharmacology; and a fourth project at Washington State University. It also has a training program for fellows and new investigators. The cooperative program is designed to expedite development of new approaches to regulating fertility. The program supports a wide range of research activities, both basic and applied, with the ultimate goal of acquiring knowledge that may lead to clinically useful products.

In addition to testing the administration of hormones as a possible means of contraception, examples of research under way are attempts to regulate hormone secretion by altering ion channels on the pituitary gland and thereby temporarily stopping sperm production. Other research to prevent fertilization looks at influencing ion channels on sperm cells. The center's scientists also study hormonal signals from the brain that act on the testes, and chemical signals that originate from the testes. Among the hormones examined are testosterone, estradiol, and dihydrotestosterone, which affect lipids and bones, as well as behavior. Another interest is the molecular biology of the genes controlling testicular function and the body's response to reproductive hormones.

"Overall, we study the control of fertility, that is, the control of sperm production in men," explained Bremner. "The practical aim of our work is to give men a new, safe, reversible, and affordable contraceptive. We are committed to finding a male contraceptive that would be used in the developing world as well as in the United States. We plan to use the tools of biomedical research to help deal with the population explosion and with the present lack of contraceptive options."