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es a technology called High Throughput Screening (HTS), which is able to screen
thousands of compounds at a time. HTS is one of the reasons the University was able to win such a prestigious contract.
The University and the KU Medical Center are the only institutions in the United States involved in the NIH contract. However, Gunda Georg, lead researcher, says her team might collaborate with other institutions that are doing similar research to speed up the process. Georg is also the director for the Center for Drug Discovery at the Higuchi Biosciences Center and professor of medicinal chemistry. Other primary members of the research team include Qi-Zhuang Ye, research professor at
the Higuchi Biosciences Center; Joseph Tash, associate professor of molecular and integrative physiology; and Ernst Schonbrunn, assistant professor of medicinal chemistry.
According to Schonbrunn, KU researchers are determined to achieve at least the 95 to 99 percent effectiveness that women now have when taking the pill. The biggest difference between the female pill and the one being developed for men, he says, is that the female pill is hormonal and the male pill would be non-hormonal. The main advantage of this approach is that by leaving men's hormones alone, the pill will have fewer side effects.
- The typical U.S. woman wants only two children.To achieve this, she must use contraceptives roughly three decades of her life.
After its five-year contract is complete, the University will give NIH a list of the compounds that have proved effective in temporarily sterilizing mice and rats, Schonbrunn says. The NIH will then begin clinical studies.
- The female birth control pill accounts for 31 percent of contraception use in the United States; Condoms account for only 18 percent.
Pill Facts
- About one-half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
tive and would women be able to trust men to take them? According to an informal Jayplay survey conducted at the
- More than nine in 10 women at risk of an unintended pregnancy are using a contraceptive method, the most popular of which is the pill.
The biggest obstacles in developing the male pill are reducing side effects, ensuring reversibility and maintaining men's sexual drive, Georg says. A couple of psychological issues also arise from this development: Would men be willing to use the new oral contracep-
University, 78 percent of men say they would in fact be willing to take the pill to prevent pregnancy if it were available.
Despite men's willingness, 66 percent of women report that they would not be willing to rely on their male partner to share in the pill-popping responsibility. Several responses on the survey from women argued that men are too forgetful and irresponsible to be counted on to take the pill to prevent pregnancy, which is ultimately the woman's problem. Other women claim that it's difficult them to remembrances of a take
Keep your chin up though, guys. Some women out there do have faith in you. Stefani Gerson, Overland Park senior, says that her boyfriend has to remind her to take it most of the time, so she knows she could count on him. Other women claim men would use the pill out of pure fear of paternity.
a pill consistently are slim to none.
- 70% of female students are on the pill
"Guys are so scared of getting a girl pregnant, I think they'd do anything to avoid it," Amy Hamilton, Bucyrus senior, says.
Until the KU research team proves otherwise, though, it looks like the pillpopping duties are left up to women. Sorry, guys. You're stuck with the rubber for now.
- About 7 in 10 students at the University are sexually active
- 70% of female students are on the pinn
- 78% of men say they would be willing to take birth control pills if they were available
KU Sex Stats
- 66% of women say they wouldn't be willing to rely on their male partner to consistently take a birth control pill According to an informal Jaylay survey conducted here at the University.