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Home > Augmentation > Needle Patch Could Give Women an Entire Month of Birth Control

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Home›Augmentation›Needle Patch Could Give Women an Entire Month of Birth Control

Needle Patch Could Give Women an Entire Month of Birth Control

By M. Christian
January 7, 2020
2172
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Scientists develop innovative way to deliver time-released doses.

Regularly taking any form of medication, even something as important as birth control, on a rigorous daily basis can be challenging even at the best of times.  

The good news is that Mark Prausnitz, leading a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has developed a unique approach that could someday allow women to never have to worry about remembering, each and every day, to take their hormonal birth control doses.

The needle delivery system

While it might initially sound like it could be uncomfortable, Prausnitz’s system could be a major new birth control option.

While it does involve needles, set in a small adhesive patch that is held to the skin for one minute and then removed, they are of the extreme micro-variety, meaning that there is supposed to be no discomfort applying or wearing the system.  

What’s fascinating is that the needles are made up of a biodegradable polymer that, quoting from the team’s paper in Science Advances, “rapidly separate from the patch within the skin due to efflorescence triggered by contact with skin’s interstitial fluid.”

This way they deliver 30 days of hormonal birth control at a time, and so no worries about remembering to take pills.  

The team, also in the paper, note that other injectable systems for birth control have a few key stepbacks, one being that they require a visit to a clinic or doctor and, two, unlike their micro-needle system, they can be uncomfortable to receive.

Possibilities for men as well?

Not to take away from the importance of Prausnitz and his team’s work giving women a possible new, and quite liberating, way of controlling family planning, his same system might someday also allow men to get into the act of being more responsible for birth control.

While the pursuit of a viable method of birth control for men has been, to put it mildly, a rocky one and by all accounts, it still might be several years away. But once the bugs have been worked out and medication or hormonal system is found, there’s a very real possibility that Prausnitz’s system could also be used by men.

Again, for everyone involved, the huge advantage is not having to remember to take a daily dose of medication: one application of the patch and there’s no longer any reason to worry about unexpected pregnancies.

Still a need to remain cautious

Remain Safe

It should be mentioned that Prausnitz’s patch, as well as other forms of birth control, are good for just that: family planning.  

In regards to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), however, they are quite useless, meaning that as with traditional hormonal birth control methods partners will still need to practice safe(r) sex.  

This actually might need to be extra-reinforced when patches like Prausnitz’s becomes generally available, as some might think that getting their monthly dose is somehow a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to sexual behavior.  

But for partners who are regularly tested for STIs, this system could be a great way to have a free and active sex life without needing to be tied down to a daily contraceptive dose.  A patch once a month, admitted in the privacy of their home, and they can have as much sex as they desire without risk of an unexpected pregnancy.

Next-generation birth control

While the needle patch still has quite a bit of work to be done before it’s completely ready for distribution, including a series of human tests, Prausnitz’s system still shows a great deal of potential.

This is further borne out by the team’s own survey of women who might be interested in such a system, with a clear majority saying they would greatly prefer the needle-patch over both once-a-day hormone pills, once a month injections, or even invasive systems like IUDs (intrauterine devices).

So the need is there, the desire is equally present, and if testing goes smoothly and it is made available to the public, getting a micro-needle patch could become a welcome new addition to women’s birth control options.

Image sources: ScienceAdvances Monik Markus, Zappys Technology Solutions

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.
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