NEW YORK --

founder of the nonprofit

Male Contraceptive Information Project

Though they didn't look like much, the white specks squirming under a microscope in researcher Debra Wolgemuth's lab could have a big impact in the high stakes world of controlling fertility, not for women but for men.

The specks were sperm from mice that had been treated with a new contraceptive. The healthy, swimming cells showed that the new drug did not have a permanent effect once the mice had gone off it. For Wolgemuth, this was an important first step toward one day testing the drug in human men.

Professor Wolgemuth and other researchers at Columbia University Medical Center were using the drug, called BMS-189453, to block retinoid receptors-proteins that bond with vitamin A to turn on certain genes. The drug prevented sperm from developing normally, making the male mice unable to impregnate females.

''We demonstrated that the mice are infertile,'' explained Wolgemuth ``We take them off the drug, and then after a certain period of time they're fertile again.''

If the method works as well in humans, it could become a true contraceptive option for men. Maybe one day, biologist Sanny Chung said as she weighed mouse testes, ''males can play a bigger role'' in family planning.

In 1960, ''the Pill'' hit the market and changed the sex lives of millions of American women. By taking a tiny pill containing a combination of female hormones, they could take control of their bodies and protect themselves against pregnancy. Today, 12 million women in the United States alone use oral contraceptives, and others use hormonal implants, transdermal patches or vaginal rings. For women who can't take hormones, there are copper intrauterine devices, female condoms, diaphragms and cervical caps.

ONLY TWO OPTIONS

Men, on the other hand, still have only two options for controlling their fertility.

''You have condoms, which are in the moment, and vasectomies, which are permanent, and nothing in between,'' said Elaine Lissner, founder of the nonprofit Male Contraceptive Information Project.

But researchers around the world are working on new options for male birth control, including retinoid blocking, implants that could be removed when a man decides to become a father, and even special underwear that prevent sperm production. A new analysis of 30 studies done between 1990 and 2006 shows that male hormonal contraception might not be that far away. One day, there could be two dial packs of birth control pills on the nightstand, one for her and one for him.

''The initial work toward producing contraceptives focused on women, because women get pregnant,'' explained Ronald Swerdloff, head of the endocrinology department at the University of California, Los Angeles, Harbor Medical Center. ``That attitude has changed with the changing attitudes of partners. Women, in multiple surveys, have said they would like to share responsibility with a partner, just like we have come to believe that men and women should share economic and childcare roles.''

Because of the commercial success of the female birth control pill, many researchers are trying to develop a men's pill, which would block sperm production using the body's chemical signals, just as the women's pill blocks ovulation. Normally, a man's pituitary gland produces chemicals that tell the testes to make sperm and testosterone. A male hormonal contraceptive would consist of testosterone and the female hormone progestin. These hormones would tell the pituitary that the testes had already done their job, so the pituitary would not produce the signals.

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