How far would you go to relieve the woman in your life of the burden of taking contraceptives?
An invention called COSO is in the works to do just that. The creator of this invention says the aim is to give men an opportunity to take responsibility in matters of contraceptives.
This method is an “ultrasound-based, reversible and hormone-free male contraceptive device for home use that temporarily modifies spermatogenesis,” inventor, Rebecca Weiss says.
Some traditional contraceptives taken by women rely on hormones to work and can cause adverse side effects. Some pills such as the combined oral contraceptive pill contain oestrogen and progestogen hormones.
“The oestrogen prevents the ovaries from releasing an egg. The progestogen works to thicken the cervical mucous which prevents sperm from getting through into the uterus,” explains Contraception.
Side effects of the pill include headaches, breast tenderness, nausea and spotting between periods.
More concerning “A Danish study of a million women has found a link between the use of hormonal contraception such as the pill and increased risk of depression,” reported the Sydney Morning Herald.
How does it work? Here is a step-by-step how-to guide from the inventor.
The user puts water into the device up to the indicated mark, which is set together with a doctor according to individual testicle size. Then the water is heated up to operating temperature. COSO is ready for ultrasound treatment. The user spreads his legs and sits down to place the testicles in the device. The ultrasound process continues for a few minutes. The remaining time can be monitored in real-time via the COSO app. After the treatment, the device switches off automatically. The technology of the COSO is based on a study of the Parsemus Foundation from 2012 in which successful research was conducted on ultrasound contraception. So far, the procedure has been applied to animals. Therefore, the technical parameters are hypothetically transferred to humans.
The device is yet to go to market; however, it may fare better than the latest male contraceptive which had to be abandoned due to adverse side effects. If it were to make it to market, it would add to the only other contraceptives available to men; vasectomies and condoms.
