KU research aimed at birth control for men
10:18 p.m. Wednesday, July 18, 2007
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It may be years before we see it on the market. But researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center are hard at work in their labs, creating a new option in birth control.
"So we're really excited about this. This is something that rarely happens," Terranova said.
Dr. Paul Terranova is the Vice Chancellor of Research at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
One of his researchers set out to find a male contraceptive and ten years into the study, he's making progress.
It's a form of birth control that may finally take the pressure off women.
"It stops sperm development about half way through the process," Terranova said.
In the past, steroids have been used to inhibit sperm. The new drug would eliminate the need for steroids.
"Steroids have a lot of side effects and so these compounds they've developed seem to target a certain aspect of of sperm development," Teerranova said.
The study is being performed on rats. Eventually its will move to the human stage to test it's toxicity and, of course, it's effectiveness in preventing reproduction.
And like most research, there may be other benefits, too.
"It could be that we stumble across along this path new mechanisms for fertility," Terranova said.
The only other labs in the country performing similar studies are in Seattle and New York.
But the compound that make those studies possible were discovered right here in Kansas.
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