1st male contraceptive injection set for human clinical trials

CENTURY CITY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- When it comes to contraception, men have limited choices. Now, the first male contraceptive injection is scheduled to undergo human clinic trials but there may be several drawbacks.

After three kids, Harvey Stern says he is done. But after talking with his doctor about his options, he's not ready for a vasectomy.

"It is a scary option. I think it's a scary option for any man," Stern said.

News of the first male contraceptive injection, Vasalgel, can give men like Stern another choice.

"Anything you can do that is easy, quick and fast is probably a great idea," Stern said.

Vasalgel is a polymer get that is injected into the vas deferens to block sperm. It is set to go into clinical trials next year, but urologists say injecting the gel is not as easy as it sounds.

"So it sounds quite simple. Technically, I'm not sure how I'm going to know if this needle is in the right spot," said Dr. Philip Werthman, a urologist.

The vas deferens is a small channel the width of spaghetti and would be difficult to locate without surgery.

"The channel the sperm swim through is a third of a millimeter, the size of a pen dot," Werthman described.

Until a male contraceptive can be developed, Werthman offers his patients a no-scalpel vasectomy. He's able to do what others doctors do with a traditional vasectomy all through a tiny pinhole puncture.

"We make a tiny little puncture, pull it out, clean it off, put a couple of titanium clips on it, cut it, dunk it back in. The hole is so small, you don't even need a stitch to close it," Werthman explained.

Studies show that the no-scalpel procedure is just as effective.

"What they found was, that men who had the no-scalpel vasectomy, the procedure was quicker, was easier, the recovery was much simpler and much faster. There were much fewer complications," Werthman said.

While it's the most minimally invasive procedure available, Stern says he'll continue to wait for other options like the much anticipated Vasalgel. If human trials are successful, its makers hope to launch it as early as 2016.