h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a woman who DUTIFULLY TAKES THE PILL EVERYNIGHT.....I do not honestly think that a guy is going to keep up such a regimen! Every day at the same time is when you would take this pill, not to mention the trips to the doctors office every month for the injection. I've worked for 5 family practioners, and you would not believe the whining and complaining when we told a guy they had to see the doctor. Not to mention the number of girlfriends and wives that had to actually do the calling to our office because their boyfriends or husbands just couldnt find the time or the will-power to do it themselves.

Another thing that I do not see happening is a male-equivalent to the GYN-check up that is required of women in order to obtain a prescription for the Pill. While there is the exam to check the prostate, women are required to undergo a routine PAP and blood work ever year. What is in store for the men???

Taking the pill is a big responsibility. While I think men would have the very best of intentions on sharing the contraceptive responsibility in their relationships, I truly don't see it coming to fruition. And while I may get a barrage of responses attesting to the fact that men truly would follow this regimen, I would need some serious eye-witness proof to believe it.

Yeah real tuff taking a pill at the same time every day. I wake up every moringing at the same time, take a shower every morning at the same time, shave every morning at the same time, brush my teeth three times a day - ruffly at the same times - every day, take 4 different vitamins every morning at the same time, work out at the same time every day - and shower again at the same time every day, floss my teeth every night at the same time every day.
Yep, I'm sure it would be real tough to add taking a little pill at the same time every day, being a guy, it would be way to complicated for me to figure out how to do it. Only a women could figure out how to do something so complicated.
As far as going to the doctor to get a shot - every 3 months I go to give blood. I have no problem with needles.

Get real - it wouldn't be that tuff.

I also resent the idea that men can not be trusted or are some how not reliable enough to take the pill. If you didn't trust your man, you wouldn't be going out with him, right? Let's not be sexist here please...

For me it's not the trust that's missing. I would trust my young man to look after me by taking it. But he's been known to throw up when he has a hangover. If this pill is as sensitive as the women's one, and he throws it up, I'm the one that has to live with deciding on an abortion, adoption, or haivng a kid I am not equipped to deal with. I'd just prefer it if I didn't have someone I blamed for it.

That's a valid reason for not making it the responsibility of the man to take the pill within a trusting relationship.

But within the context of unplanned sex, the pill could be quite useful to the man. Though it is the woman who has to give birth to the baby (or decide to have an abortion), the man could face maintainance charges, pressure, not to mention high emotions from becoming a father. I'm not saying it's any less difficult for the woman, it is a stressful situation all round. So using the pill at least gives the man some protection.

I agree with that, if I were a man enjoying many casual relationships, I'd feel a lot better knowing I was safe from having one come back to haunt me 9 months later.

"I'm the one that has to live with deciding on an abortion, adoption, or haivng a kid I am not equipped to deal with." - It's worth noting that, along with Frankie's list of repercussions for the man, there is also one serious problem: the man almost never has the choice you outline above. A male contraceptive gives him a choice. That would be more than enough to motivate most men to stick to the regimen.

Of course he has a choice. Men have always had a choice. They could say no. Or failing that, that's what condoms are for. Let's be honest, that's not bad considering what women have had to put up with for centuries. If it's not bits of plants we've had to use, along with foul concoctions in the past, it's modern hormones, bits of metal or plastic inserted in our wombs (now also with added hormones) or stupid latex frisbies we have to go and be fitted for, and then remember to put in before anything gets going, then have to deal with removing it while it's swimming with dead sperm. It's not too much to ask that if a bloke wants to avoid getting a women pregnant he wears a condom!

Actually, it *can* be too much to ask to wear a condom. Years ago, a friend confessed to me that he couldn't wear one... as soon as he unrolled the thing, he went limp. I haven't had that problem myself, but I have noticed that sex with a condom is not worth my while. I can pleasure myself with much better effect... who needs a woman?

And unless you've actually shoved plants up yourself (for birth control purposes... anything you may or may not have chosen to do with salad ingredients for other purposes is none of my business ), I don't want to hear any of that "we've had to use" nonsense. It's that type of idiocy that breeds racial hatred. I'm of French and Irish descent (among others), and American by culture, but I don't say stupid things about having been invaded or oppressed by the English. They never did anything to me.

Women have the same power as the man to say no, so that conversation isn't worth having, either. But when both say yes, and the birth control methods fail, then the woman, and only the woman, has the choice for what happens next, and the consequences of that choice. The man has only consequences. That's the point I was trying to make.

No need to be quite so rude about it. I've got no idea why you've brought racial hatred into the converstation, or decided I was being idiotic. In your previous post you made it seem as if there were no choices for contraception for men at all.
Ok, so I haven't had to use methods like that, but I have had the choice of all the others. I'm sorry for your friend who went limp, but that's a fairly commion probelm, and there's therapy for that sort of thing. The people I feel sorry for are the men who are too small to keep them on. Yes, I've met men like that. I said no.
If sex with a condom on is not worth your while then I feel sorry for you, as I don't know any other men who would rather be home alone.
If I misunderstood you, then I apologise, but youI read it as you saying men had no choice for contraception. As for men having no choice in what happens when women do get pregnant, then you are right, men have no choice what happens, only opinion. That will not change with the arrival of a contraceptive pill.

i'm a man. i forget birthdays (even my own once) anniversaries, arrangements, phone numbers, my address. if i were a single man i wouldn't take the pill, because in all probability, i would forget. just like those malaria pills that i always get behind on. an implant, i could deal with. but surely the same common sense rules would apply with the male pill as the female pill. it protects against pregnancy not disease and really is for use inside a secure relationship. and inside such a relationship, it is both partner's responsibility to ensure that the pill is taken, because if it's not the results affect both parties (and i know that i don't have to carry the baby but it would still have a massive effect upon my life). contraception is an arrangement entered into by both parties. how that looks and who wears/takes what is irrelevant.

that's my view anyway, and for the record i'm welsh and i live in england and am in no way racist or discussing racism, just incase that american replies and accuses me of shooting mlk.

I brought racial prejudice into it to head off a useless conversation on inter-sexual relationships through history, and to head off a similar topic drift that would turn into a battle of the sexes. I don't think either conversation would be productive. I'm sorry if you felt I was being heavy-handed about it.

I can do without your pity regarding my own position on condoms, however, and I take offense at it. It's a very real problem with condoms, that they're extremely desensitising. I cannot achieve orgasm with one on as a result. A male who is sexually stimulated for a prolongued period of time with no release experiences an incredibly uncomfortable sensation known colloquially in the US as "blue balls."

With that in mind, I find it very insensitive and egocentric when I encounter women with the attitude "it's not too much to ask that the bloke wear a condom." It's not worth my while to have sex with a string of random partners, for the reasons mentioned above, but that's just fine by me. I'd much rather have a meaningful, long-term relationship any day. In such a relationship, there is enough trust that concern for STD's is nonexistent, and wonderful sex without a clumsy or desensitizing barrier method is possible.

If I *were* interested in sex with a string of random partners, then a male contraceptive would be ideal. It would give me a choice in preventing pregnancies, which is very empowering. It still wouldn't give me a choice post-conception, but it gives me more choice before it comes to that.

In turn, I beg your pardon if I was patronising. It is not my place to critise or comment on your personal preferences, and I didn't really mean to. I have never heard a man say that before about condoms, I genuinely thought it was a male excuse to get out of wearing one.
But we do agree on one thing, as I have said elsewhere (although I don't think on this talking point page), I also thought that it would be a good thing for men interested in casual relationships.

Thank you Colonel for your openess and honesty. I have the same problems with condoms. It is not just an excuse! I would truly welcome the chance to have a non-intrusive contraception method that would give my wife a break from the pill.