The Future of Male Birth Control Could Be Pills, Gels and Implants

“All I have is sperm,” Akash Bakshi says. “I’m just looking at sperm counts.” Every day the co-founder of YourChoice Therapeutics arrives at his startup’s office in San Francisco to do this work.
A biochemist by training, Bakshi could become the first biotech company chief executive officer to bring a hormone-free male birth control pill to market. The pill his team developed, YCT-529, works by blocking a vitamin-A-dependent protein essential for sperm growth, temporarily rendering men infertile without affecting their testosterone levels and thereby potentially introducing related side effects. Phase 1 human clinical trials showed it was well tolerated, and Bakshi says early results in Phase 2, which is focused on both safety and efficacy, are promising.
Currently the only widely used forms of contraception available to men are condoms and vasectomies. There’s a substantial potential market for other methods. A 2018 study in Lancet Global Health found that almost half of all pregnancies in the US and worldwide are unintended. Another study, published in 2024 in the journal Contraception, placed the potential US market for new male contraceptives at 7 million to 15.5 million men. And an earlier assessment of the global market, from 2016 in Springer Nature, estimated it at anywhere from $40 billion to $200 billion.
Alongside YCT-529, three other products are in human trials: a hormonal shoulder gel from Contraline Inc. and two hydrogel-based vasectomy alternatives classified as medical devices, one from Contraline and one from NEXT Life Sciences Inc. Both companies are aiming for their products to be approved within the next three to four years.