COSO, an ultrasound-based and reversible approach to male contraception

[iSnow]

I see a couple of acceptance problems with the device.

First, men a notoriously squeamish when it comes to their testicles. "Heating" without telling the temperature won't fly with many. I guess it doesn't have to be hot as it probably only needs to be warm enough to relax the cremaster muscles. If it has to be uncomfortably hot, I see little chance in the market.

Second, I'd expect the ultrasound to hurt. The epididymis is pretty sensitive to pain.

Third, it will feel like gambling as the female partner doesn't really know whether all sperm is killed or whether she will end up pregnant. And for the male, it will be a leap of faith as well. That should improve if a lot of users report no unwanted pregnancies, but in the beginning...

[clarkevans]

Even so, providing direct control of fertility by a male partner is an important problem. Currently, the only control option that permits unprotected sex is a vasectomy -- this is expensive, requires many months, and is not always reversible. On the female side there is the UID and hormonal interventions -- both of which have downsides for the female partner.

[dgfitz]

> First, men a notoriously squeamish when it comes to their testicles.

That's quite an inaccurate blanket statement.

> Second, I'd expect the ultrasound to hurt.

Ultrasound treatments are actually used to treat pain. Maybe you have evidence of ultrasounds causing pain, but I can't find anything of the sort.

> Third, it will feel like gambling as the female partner doesn't really know whether all sperm is killed or whether she will end up pregnant.

Unprotected sex is always gambling, for BOTH parties, not just the female.

[vidarh]

The pill can feel like gambling too. Yet lots of people rely on it, either in isolation or combined with another method. It may well be that people feel like it's gambling on its own but still end up finding value in it combined with the pill or with condoms or both long before people feel confident about relying on it on its own.

[giantg2]

4th, there's no data about return of fertility in humans after longterm use and if it raises birth defects.

[collegeburner]

Yeah I physically cringed when I heard this, idk if I'd ever be able to make myself do it. Just stick to condoms.

[causi]

Feels like snake oil. There's no data on how the device uses ultrasound to destroy sperm. There's no data on how often it must be used to keep live sperm from getting to the prostate where they cannot be destroyed. The biggest section is boasting about how they had a bunch of guys off the street draw up idea for the appearance of the device. Red flag, red flag, red flag.

[AndrewDucker]

I'd love to have effective male contraception.

But the previous work on this doesn't make it look like it's the answer: https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contrac...

See the section "Effective contraception in humans remains elusive"

[dymk]

DMAU as a pill or injection appears to be very effective. Studies are still ongoing. It’s been studied for a long time, and finally it seems there’s an appetite from men widespread enough to make it feasible commercially.

https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/one-step-closer-is-male-...

I’ve done two drug trials with this stuff and it’s pretty cool. It appears to make men totally infertile while they’re on the drug, with a quick recovery once off of it. It might help prevent balding, too.

[giantg2]

Yeah, those numbers don't look good - 20% motility and 50% of normal count sounds like potential for pregnancy. Maybe reduced, but still there.

[strathmeyer]

Turns out "take a hot bath" doesn't make anyone any money. It's very common in poor countries such as India. (https://www.dontcookyourballs.com/)

[phkahler]

>> The technology of the COSO is based on a study of the Parsemus Foundation from 2012 in which successful research was conducted on ultrasound contraception.

Isn't that the same organization that has been claiming to bring RISUG to the US for the last 10 years with ZERO results? I'm starting to think they're actually a shill claiming to tackle this issue so that nobody else will. Their goal seem to be the opposite of what they say.

[RegBarclay]

I wonder how long the effect lasts? How often would a man have to do this to maintain continuous contraception? Seems like there might be some long term effects from repeated ultrasonic treatment of any human tissue.

[raverbashing]

How long but also how long does it take before the procedure is done and your sperm is sterile. Minutes? Hours? Days?

[dgfitz]

~2 weeks

[BurningFrog]

"So far, the procedure has been applied to animals. Therefore, the technical parameters are hypothetically transferred to humans."

[rdl]

I'd love to see more innovation happening in this space. The one project I followed for a while seems to have stalled (or never really got off the ground) -- https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/vasalgel/ (which had solid results in India but got patented and locked up by a non-profit)

[tomcooks]

In the past men used to take really warm baths to temporarily become infertile, i assume this uses the same process

In related news: "coso" is used in italian to mean d.

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

To be fair, coso could be used to refer to any generic thing, male (in Italian language everything is male or female). Unfortunately given the context, this could only refer to that.

[poulpy123]

it's always a bad sign when the commercial slides and the nice 3D renders are ready before any scientific study of the device

[gpvos]

The James Dyson award is a design award. On second view, this appears to be a master thesis project by a technical design student. So the product does not yet exist, and there are lots of problems with getting it there. I did not properly see all that before posting it; my apologies.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting idea to speculate about. And it seems to be one of the more promising ideas in this area.

[Tepix]

Here is the 2012 project that this product was inspired by: https://www.parsemus.org/humanhealth/ultrasound-male-contrac...

[swader999]

How long does a ball heating session work for?