Reproductive Medicine Archives

Researchers from the University of North Carolina, School of Medicine have successfully tested ultrasound treatment to reduce sperm counts in rats to levels that would cause infertility in men. They used commercially available therapeutic ultrasound equipment, with which they tested the effects of different frequencies, temperatures and duration of ultrasound treatment on the sperm count. The results are published in the journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology.

The first report of the effect of ultrasound on germ cells and fertility was produced back in the seventies, by Mostafa Fahim and colleagues at the University of Missouri at Columbia. The aim of the current study was to determine the effect of currently available ultrasound equipment and if this technology could be used as the basis for a male contraceptive in the future. Their findings show an optimal result with two consecutive ultrasound treatments at 3 MHz, 2.2 Watt per square centimeter, for a duration 15 minutes, at a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius when the sperm count in the rat model dropped to a level that would cause infertility in men.

Advantages of ultrasound are the non-invasive nature of the treatment and its efficacy. However, at this moment not much is know of the long-term therapeutic prospects and side-effects of this treatment. In any case, this research has presented ultrasound as a potential basis for male contraceptive in the future and we will have to wait on the results of research to confirm this. And to guard your male fertility in the meantime, make sure your groin stays clear of ultrasound transducers.

Press release: Sonicating sperm: The future of male contraception

Article link: Therapeutic ultrasound as a potential male contraceptive: power, frequency and temperature required to deplete rat testes of meiotic cells and epididymides of sperm determined using a commercially available system

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a new condom, developed by Futura Medical (Surrey, UK), that is internally coated with a vasodilator. A good number of men “deflate” when applying condoms, leading them to stop using protection altogether. The new condom is currently called CSD500, but we imagine that Durex, the manufacturing and distributing partner, will have a spicier nom de guerre when it goes on sale. According to our earlier report, the trademarked brand name for the vasodilator is Zanifil™, a gel with an active ingredient glyceryl trinitrate [nitroglycerin]. The WSJ is reporting that European approval is expected imminently and EU consumers may see the new condom on store shelves by the end of the year.
From The Wall Street Journal:

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At the Future Health Mission 2011 in San Francisco last week, we were offered a chance to check out some of the latest and most promising medtech startups from the United Kingdom, who came for a tour of Silicon Valley.
Here’s one technology that impressed us a lot. DuoFertility is an ovulation pattern temperature monitor from Cambridge Temperature Concepts Ltd. The DuoFertility technology was profiled by us back in 2008 when it was in prototype stage. Now it is a fully developed device that has an auxiliary temperature monitoring patch and a receptacle that downloads temperature data from the patch and sends it to a service center. The idea is to use the temperature variations of a woman to extrapolate the best day(s) for her to conceive. According to the company’s CEO and founder Dr Shamus Husheer, the device is already selling quite well in emergent markets such as Middle East and Asia, and is on its way to wider use in Europe. And, of course, the company is hoping to obtain US FDA approval sometime in the near future. Here’s Dr Husheer answering our questions about the technology and the future of the company:

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