FRIDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) -- Monthly injections of testosterone can provide effective reversible contraception for healthy fertile men without adverse effects, according to a study first published online on March 17 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Yiqun Gu, M.D., from the National Research Institute for Family Planning in Beijing, and colleagues treated 1,045 healthy fertile Chinese men with monthly injections of testosterone undecanoate in tea seed oil as part of a Phase III trial for 30 months.
The researchers found that the primary failure rate due to failure to adequately suppress spermatogenesis during the six-month suppression phase was 4.8 percent (19 pregnancies). There was an additional 1.3 percent secondary failure during the 24-month efficacy phase, with nine pregnancies due to post-suppression sperm rebound or occurring under conditions of severe oligozoospermia. The cumulative failure rate at 24 months was 6.1 percent or 1.1 per 100 men. There were no serious adverse events, and sperm counts returned to normal after discontinuing treatment in nearly all men.
"In conclusion, the present study results show that monthly 500 mg testosterone undecanoate injections can provide effective, reversible, acceptable and readily delivered contraception for most healthy Chinese men without serious short-term adverse effects," Gu and colleagues write.
Zhejiang Xian Ju Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. provided the injectable testosterone.
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