Male birth control. (updates).

Several recent studies examine the impact on male fertility of three diverse sources: mountain biking, heavy cologne and a drug that appears to have no side effects.

The drug, used to treat Gaucher's disease--a rare genetic disorder that causes enlargement of the liver and spleen--severely damages sperm and, scientists believe, may be free of the side effects associated with hormone-based contraceptive treatments.

A British research team from the University of Sheffield and the University of Oxford administered the drug, which is known as NBDNJ, to male mice. It had no effect on sexual behavior but rendered the mice completely infertile.

"The advantage is that this drug does not influence the sex hormone production of the male in the way that hormonal treatments do," says study leader, Aarnoud van der Spoel, of Oxford. More research is needed before the drug is made available to men for birth control, but it has already been shown to be safe for Gaucher's patients, van der Spoel says, and this may help to speed up the process. The study appears in the December 2002 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Second, mountain biking may have contraceptive effect.

An Austrian scientist weighed into the debate over cycling and male sexual function with a study suggesting that frequent mountain biking may reduce fertility. The research, reported December 2, 2002, at a Chicago meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, says that jolts caused by biking may affect sperm production. Ferdinand Frauscher, MD, a ...