Rejoice: A Male Birth Control Pill Is Near!

Gentlemen, this could be a game-changer.
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You know it all too well: condoms unequivocally suck.

Fumbling through your bedside table looking for a rubber at the pivotal moment can completely shatter the vibe. They're quite pricey considering they're just a tiny latex sheath. And considering that wearing one is like wearing a full scuba suit to sunbathe, and it's no surprise that men (and women!) are ditching them more frequently than ever.

But you know what else sucks? Having babies when you weren't planning on having babies. Despite various health care hurdles like affordability and availability, women have kind of won the birth control lottery until now: pills, IUDs, diaphragms, patches, sponges — the list of lady contraceptives goes on and on.

Finally, men may be able to ditch the love glove once and for all in favor of a pill that halts your swimmers, effectively preventing pregnancy. A new study published in in the journal Science reports that trials conducted by researchers at Japan's Osaka University have been largely successful in cutting down on mouse fertility by inhibiting calcineurin, a unique protein essential to sperm. By isolating this important component, sperm "are prevented from rapidly moving upstream and penetrating the female egg," as Nylonputs it.

This should come as a huge relief to your junk, since past male birth control efforts — namely, the Vasalgel that could end up on shelves by 2017 — focused on painful injections into your vas deferens. Thanks, but no thanks. 

Sure, this research is still in the trial stages, but I think all of America is collectively crossing their fingers. Give it up for baby-free sex, y'all!

Photos by Getty Images