 (Image courtesy of James Heilman, MD - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22535295) The contraceptive patch is a small, flexible, adhesive patch worn on the body for 3 weeks, and is removed for the fourth week to allow for menstruation. The patch continually releases the hormones estrogen and progestin, which prevent ovulation and thicken the cervical mucus to prevent pregnancy.
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 The quest for effective and reliable male birth control methods has gained significant attention in recent years thanks to the efforts of organizations like MCI. While advancements in contraceptive options for women have also been substantial, the limited choices available to men underscore the need for innovative solutions in order to provide safe, effective contraception for all genders. Developing this next generation of birth control methods requires developing a deep understanding of people's needs and preferences, which is where market research plays a vital role: offering valuable insights that shape the design and development process. In this blog post, we will explore why understanding people's needs is crucial and make a compelling case for conducting market research in the realm of male contraception.
 Reproductive autonomy is a fundamental human right that enables individuals to make informed decisions about their reproductive health and exercise control over their own bodies. Historically, the responsibility of contraception has been placed primarily on women, which limits their reproductive autonomy. However, male birth control has the potential to revolutionize reproductive health and empower all people to take control of their own reproductive choices.
 With all the attention and excitement building about ChatGPT and the future of Artificial Intelligence-assisted, well, everything, we decided to put the platform to work and asked it to write a blog post for us about male birth control. Less than a minute after asking, here’s what it came up with:
 (Image Source: Y. Rosen, MD) The production of sperm can be disrupted with a rise in temperature. Male thermal contraceptive methods (MTCs) involve heating the testicles inside the scrotum so that sperm production is slowed down. MTCs induce temporary infertility in men via a number of different methods, including applying hot water to the scrotum, generating heat on the testicles using ultrasound or heating pads, and creating artificial cryptorchidism (i.e., holding the testicles inside the abdomen) using specialized underwear.
 This blog series highlights pertinent publications that were featured in MCI's monthly newsletter editions in the fourth quarter of 2022. The purpose of this blog is to report interesting or relevant work from MCI Fellows, Grantees, staff members, and other community authors in the field of male contraception.
 The end of the year always invites the opportunity to look back and reflect upon all that transpired over the previous months that help define the year, whether good, bad, or otherwise. It is an opportunity to introspect and evaluate how yesterday’s actions led to today and help inform tomorrow.
 A critical component of advancing the cause of “Reproductive Autonomy for All” is education. The shortcomings of sexual education are not limited, and are seemingly universally felt with disastrous results. As such, it is incumbent upon all of us to take the steps necessary to fully understand our reproductive biology in order to better inform our family planning objectives and to make the best decisions possible for our individual needs and desires.
Thankfully, there are a plethora of great resources available to help meet our educational interests and needs, including a whole host of books that both inform and inspire us here at MCI. In this post, we share a collection of our favorite books, but please also be sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter as we highlight these and other titles periodically.  We believe that all people should have reproductive autonomy, and the access to contraception that works best for their bodies and their lifestyles. Unfortunately, not all people have this. We’re here to talk about a group of people who may not have access to contraceptive products that are safe and reliable in pregnancy prevention. Overweight and obese individuals that are sexually active deserve to have birth control that they can rely on and have access to.
 Understanding people’s perspectives around male contraception helps guide our work at MCI. Sharing them is a privilege as well as a mandate: it’s of strategic importance to us to facilitate and broadcast the interest for male methods in an effort to present the undeniable market demand for them. Normally this is done through the lens of our grantees, fellows, research community, or even the general public. But lately, we’ve been endeavoring to share the views of MCI’s staff as well. In that spirit, this is a conversation with our Program & Communications Coordinator Sabey Boswell in which she shares her thoughts about male contraception as well as her interest in working with MCI.
 September is Sexual Health Awareness Month. If your sexual health isn’t something you’ve thought about in a while, then now is a perfect time. We know that it can be hard to talk about these things, as there are a lot of stigmas surrounding sexuality. We’re here to shed some light on sexual health and encourage open conversation. If you want to have a healthier and more fulfilling sex life, this article is for you!
 MPTs or Multipurpose Prevention Technologies are products created to prevent unintended pregnancy and protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. In order for a product to be labeled as an MPT, it must protect the user from at least two of the following reproductive health risks: HIV, STI transmission, and unintended pregnancy.
 How does the law relate to reproductive health, especially male contraception? This is a question I found myself answering in many instances whenever I presented my topic to the lecturer for approval. For once, I thought this would be a unique experience; doing something that has been missing in my field of study and the feeling of being the first to explore the idea was overwhelming. Little did I know that I was getting myself into something that would shape my general perception and career projection.
Male Contraceptive Initiative’s Statement on the U.S. Supreme Court Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade6/30/2022  Male Contraceptive Initiative’s vision is “Reproductive Autonomy for All.”
We fund and advocate for the development of new non-hormonal, reversible contraceptives for men and sperm-producing individuals. We envision a world in which every child birth is intentional, and occurs only after careful consideration and in line with the family planning desires of those involved. Our work closes the gap in contraception that prevents men from taking an active role in avoiding a pregnancy, but most importantly, alleviates a disproportionate and undue burden for women.  Shyann Stewart from North Carolina Central University shares reflections on what she learned during her internship with MCI in this blog post. Unplanned pregnancies account for 45 percent of all pregnancies in the United States. In many of those cases, women were either taking ineffective birth control or not utilizing any birth control at all. Annually, approximately 700 women die in the United States as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications, making it one of the highest rates in developed nations. Maternal mortality, like infant mortality and life expectancy, is seen as a key measure of a country's health and a bellwether indicator for assessing both human rights and public health.The purpose of this project is to create health promotion materials based on African American women’s perceived risk of maternal mortality, their contraceptive preferences and willingness to use male contraceptive methods.
 Most people think that a person is either biologically female or biologically male despite their gender identity. This notion is outdated and incorrect. While there is a high prevalence of a biological binary, biological sex is not, in fact, binary. The intersex community is diverse and full of different sex characteristics (e.g., sex chromosomes, gonads, genitalia, hormones, or a combination). These characteristics don't fit into our social binary but exist naturally in biology.
 This blog series highlights pertinent publications that were featured in MCI's monthly newsletter editions in the first quarter of 2022. The purpose of this blog is to report interesting or relevant work from MCI Fellows, Grantees, staff members, and other community authors in the field of male contraception.
 According to Merriam-Webster, transfeminine people are whose gender identity is partially or fully feminine and differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth; they are are people who were assigned male at birth (AMAB) but identify more with a feminine identity.
 Our most recent MCI Youth Advisory Board member Meghana Reddy sat down with us to discuss her motivation in joining the board and her interest in male contraception. This blog post shares highlights from that conversation. In 2021, I decided that I wanted to start my own company focused on providing non-hormonal contraceptive options for women. Before starting my business, I created my own research protocol, and was able to interview over 50 individuals about the perspectives of contraception, sexually transmitted infections (STI)s, and the stigma surrounding sexual health. Because of the responses I received, I reached out to plenty of contraceptive pioneers, and was able to connect with Heather Vahdat, the Executive Director of Male Contraceptive Initiative (MCI). Through Heather, I was exposed to MCI's Youth Advisory Board (YAB), and decided it was the right fit for my interests and previous experiences. When I was conducting my personal research, I did not meet a lot of individuals that had an immense interest in contraception, until I met the individuals in the YAB. After joining the YAB in February 2021, I was able to learn more about new male birth control methods.
 The critical work developing the next generation of non-hormonal, reversible male (or sperm-targeting) contraception is ongoing, and it is likely to be years before the first of these methods is available. Despite this, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about and optimistic for the future. These new methods will be transformational in ensuring reproductive autonomy for all, addressing significant challenges like unintended pregnancies, and helping meet the lofty sustainability goals necessary to improve the health of the planet and all its inhabitants.
 There is no contraceptive “silver bullet” - no one method that everyone will see as the be-all-end-all of methods.
Imagine this - there’s an injectable contraceptive that lasts for a few months, but it requires seeing a provider, in their office, to administer the drug when it’s time. Or, alternatively, there’s a new daily pill, and it has almost no side effects, but it requires strict adherence to be efficacious, and missing a dose by even a few hours can be problematic. Or instead, imagine an option that works for years on end and is very effective, but requires a provider to make a small surgical incision in the scrotum during an administration procedure, and users would be sore for a few days afterwards.  A persona is a fictional character created to represent a user type that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way. They are incredibly useful tools in user-centered design, marketing, and other disciplines focusing on customers or “users”, and they are particularly useful during ideation activities for new products and services as they allow for the extrapolation of user preferences to inform attributes, thereby removing some of the ambiguity inherent in new product design.
 Modern hormonal and prescription contraception is primarily focused on giving cisgender women, or people who identify as women who were also assigned female at birth, the means to protect themselves against an unintended pregnancy. While pills, patches, and IUDs are useful tools to help cis women control their fertility, they may fall short at protecting some cis men, trans, nonbinary, and intersex people. In recent years, there has been an increased awareness of sexual and reproductive health disparities adversely affecting LGBTQ populations.
 Reproductive Autonomy For All
Male Contraceptive Initiative takes our mission seriously. We are constantly looking for ways to reach our goals and contribute to expansive contraception access. After an internal review of how we convey our values, MCI realized it was time to update. We have updated our vision to "Reproductive Autonomy for All." We believe that our work is more than just drug or product development. It's a mission to empower everyone with the freedom to choose how they manage their fertility, contraception, and family planning.  With the global population continuing to grow and men’s options for contraception still limited to condoms and vasectomy, the time is ripe for another contraception revolution¹.
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