“Heated briefs”, contraceptive rings… In addition to searching for chemical molecules, hormonal or not, male contraception could use another approach: thermal. In principle, the blocking effect of an increase of a few degrees in the testicle on spermatogenesis has been known for decades. And in practice, more and more men are resorting to devices – often self-made – with which the testicle can be raised to the level of the beginning of the inguinal canal in order to obtain contraceptives. There is currently no validation from health authorities, but the situation could well change in the coming years.
If the story begins in India in the 1930s, where Swiss doctor Martha Voegeli’s experiments showed a decline in male fertility thanks to daily hot baths, it was continued primarily in France. First in Toulouse. In the 1980s, the andrologist Roger Mieusset and the reproductive biologist Louis Bujan were part of an association of men working on issues of paternity, male contraception, etc. “In this group, a farmer who spent a lot of time on his tractor told us that he felt his testicles risingremembers Louis Bujan. This is how Roger Mieusset, who was already working on the topic of hyperthermia and its negative effects on spermatogenesis, came up with the original idea of suitable underwear. In 1987 he published the method. » In 1994, the two doctors from Toulouse reported inInternational Journal of Andrology The results of a preliminary study – involving nine couples and more than 150 cycles – suggest that these briefs are an effective, well-tolerated and reversible contraceptive method. To cause a drastic decrease in sperm count (below the threshold of 1 million/ml sperm), it must be worn for at least fifteen hours a day. For his part, the Egyptian researcher Ahmed Shafik published comparable results in 1991 on around thirty men who had (reversible) testicular suspension surgery.
“Many requests”
In the years that followed, this research did not go much further because other teams and industry partners were not interested in replicating and conducting clinical trials on larger populations. The concept is not taken very seriously. “I think it’s a shame that an industrialist didn’t deal with the issue directly after Doctor Mieusset patented the device. We would have had something standardized to meet growing demand.”, regrets Professor Bujan. A movement also highlighted by the general practitioner and andrologist François Isus, who succeeded Roger Mieusset in the Department of Medicine and Reproductive Biology at the University Hospital of Toulouse. In France, vasectomy sterilizations have increased tenfold in around ten years, with more than 21,000 carried out in 2021. “I have a lot of requests for thermal contraception and limit myself to 5-10 consultations per weekspecifies Doctor Isus. I cannot prescribe it because it is not recognized, but I provide information, examine these men for the absence of contraindications and do a spermogram. » Afterward ? If you want, you can make suitable underwear yourself or get a contraceptive ring (currently on offer as a talisman). “A control semen analysis would be necessary every three months, but most people do not have a follow-up examination”continues François Isus, who says he is thinking about a new clinical trial protocol.
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