W.H.O’s Going To Do It?: Reflecting on the Absence of Hormonal Male Contraception

Abstract

Despite decades of scientific research and popular support, hormonal male contraceptives still remains absent from U.S drug markets, forcing the burden of family planning disproportionately upon women. This paper argues that the absence of male birth control is not the result of scientific or physiological failure, but rather is reflective of the motivations and priorities of the institutions that directed fertility research in the twentieth century. By analyzing three key historical stakeholders—the United Nations and Population Council, the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), and the pharmaceutical industry—this essay traces how male contraceptive research was repeatedly deprioritized in favor of female methods. Using Margaret Sanger’s successful campaign for female birth control as a comparative framework, the paper illustrates how personal advocacy, political urgency, and moral investment were essential to the development of the oral contraceptive pill, while their absence hindered male contraceptive innovation.