FOX NEWS - After taking an experimental male birth control pill for 28 days, 30 men reported no serious side effects and the drug showed signs of decreasing sperm production, according to results of a phase 1 safety test reported Sunday in a poster session at ENDO 2019, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans.
The purpose of phase I trials is to gather initial data on a drug’s safety, not to test whether it’s effective. In fact, the duration of the trial was insufficient to prove the pill’s effectiveness as a contraceptive. That would take 60 to 90 days of use, the researchers said. Instead, the hormone changes seen in the volunteers were “consistent with effective contraception,” according to a news release.
The effects of the drug seemed to fade after the men stopped taking it.