Birth Control Is About To Go Remote Control

Human sperm is about to meet its most formidable hurdle to conception: microchip birth control that can be turned on or off via remote control.

And wouldn’t you know we have Bill Gates to thank, yet again. As if it wasn’t good enough that Gate’s foundation just threw $100,000 at developing a condom made of hydro-gel that feels like real skin, the Microsoft co-founder was at MIT with some of his fellow think-tankers a few years ago to put remote-control birth control into motion, too.

According to MIT’s Technology Review, Gates was visiting the laboratory of Robert Langer when he asked about the viability of the idea. As a matter of fact, Langer told him, he and fellow scientists John Santini and Michael Cima had invented a time-released microchip system a few decades ago.

The technology was licensed to a Lexington, Massachusetts, company called microCHIPS, according to the journal, which is now ready to test the birth-control device for safety and effectiveness.

This is how the journal describes the 20-by-20-7-millimeter microchip working:

“Designed to be implanted under the skin of the buttocks, upper arm, or abdomen… [the device] dispenses 30 micrograms a day of levonorgestrel, a hormone already used in several kinds of contraceptives. Sixteen years’ worth of the hormone fits in tiny reservoirs on a microchip 1.5 centimeters wide inside the device. MicroCHIPS invented a hermetic titanium and platinum seal on the reservoirs containing the levonorgestrel. Passing an electric current through the seal from an internal battery melts it temporarily, allowing a small dose of the hormone to diffuse out each day.

The device, which has yet to face Food and Drug Administration scrutiny, is installed using a local anesthesia in a half-hour procedure.

Once activated, the birth control can be turned on or off simply by activating a button on a remote-control unit. And it can be removed once the 16 years’ worth of hormone runs out, which is about the half-life of a woman’s reproductive ability, according to CNET. So far, implanted hormone birth control has been able to last users at most five years.

MicroCHIPS’ website states that “These arrays are designed for compatibility with pre-programmed microprocessors, wireless telemetry or sensor feedback loops to provide active control. Individual device reservoirs can be opened on demand or on a predetermined schedule to precisely control drug release or sensor activation.”

In other words, with trials lined up for next year and release expected in about 2018, birth control is about to meet the wireless divide.

[Image courtesy of Motherboard]