评论
打印
At a meeting of endocrinologists this month, researchers presented new work that suggests they're one step closer to a male birth control pill!
在本月的内分泌学家会议中，有研究人员汇报了他们的新工作，他们离男性避孕药更进了一步！
Do you feel like you've heard this news before? Well, that's probably because you have.
是不是觉得之前就听过这个消息？没错，你确实听说过。
Scientists have been looking into a safe, reversible kind of male birth control for decades and they've gotten close, but not quite there.
几十年来，科学家们一直都在寻找一种安全可复的男性避孕药，他们一直都离这个目标很近，却从未真正实现。
Even here on SciShow, we've reported on things like chromatin remodeling, hormone injections,
即使是在科学秀节目中，我们也报道过染色质重塑、荷尔蒙注射
and a dissolvable gel that plugs up the vas deferens — AKA the sperm tubes.
以及阻塞输卵管的可溶解的凝胶—也称为生精管。
And researchers call these treatments "male birth control" for short, because they're tested in cisgender males who are making sperm.
研究人员将这些治疗简称为“男性避孕”，因为这些试验是在产生精子的顺性别男性身上进行的。
So why's it so tricky to make a male pill? The short answer is: it's a lot easier to stop one egg a month than millions of sperm a day.
为什么制作男性避孕药那么棘手呢？简短回答就是：和一天阻止百万精子相比，一个月阻止一个卵子要简单的多。
The female birth control pill has been around since 1960 — nearly 60 years ago! And it's one of many options out there.
女性避孕药起于1960年——将近60年啦！并且这也只是众多选择之一。
The pill has synthetic hormones — either a combination of estrogen and progestin, or progestin alone.
药中含有合成荷尔蒙—要么是雌性激素和黄体酮的结合，要么就只是黄体酮。
So it stabilizes hormone levels and prevents the spike in estrogen that normally happens midway through the menstrual cycle,
避孕药能稳定激素水平并预防雌性激素中的峰形，峰形常发生在月经周期的中期，
setting off a chain of events that lead to ovulation.
阻断一连串导致排卵的活动。
Without that spike, no egg is released and no babies are made.
没有了这个峰形，就不会释放卵子，也不会有宝宝。
Very rarely, the female birth control pill can have serious side effects, like blood clots or heart problems.
女性避孕药很少有副作用，比如血栓或心脏问题。
But it has some potential health benefits too, like reducing bone thinning, anemia, or risk of some cancers.
但也有一些潜在健康益处，比如减少骨质流失、贫血或一些癌症风险。
Other than condoms, vasectomies, and withdrawal…there aren't many male birth control options. And nothing based on hormones has panned out.
除了避孕套、输精管切除术和摘除...却没有很多男性避孕选项。没有基于激素的方法取得成功。
On average, men release around 180 million sperm every time they ejaculate.
男性每次射精时平均释放约1.8亿个精子。
It only takes one to fertilize an egg and get their partner pregnant. So… that's a lot of sperm to deal with.
只有一个能使卵子受精并使女性怀孕。所以，要处理的精子太多了。
Instead of physically stopping them, like a condom does, male pills aim to lower the sperm count.
除了从身体上阻止它们，如避孕套，男性避孕药的目标是减少精子数。
Basically, stopping the production of sperm cells, but leaving the rest of the semen alone. And the basic strategy for this is kind of counterintuitive.
基本上讲是阻止精细胞的产生，仅留下剩余的精子。其基本策略有点违反直觉。
It turns out that if you give men lots of testosterone, they stop making sperm. Sperm are produced in the testes, which are also testosterone factories.
事实证明如果向男性注射大量睾酮，他们就会停止制造精子。精子产生于睾丸，睾丸也是睾酮工厂。
So testosterone levels are really high in there, like 25-125 times higher than in blood.
所以那里的睾酮水平很高，比血液中的要高25-125倍。
And sperm need those high concentrations of testosterone to develop correctly. But when a dude gets an injection or a pill of extra testosterone,
精子需要那些高浓度的睾酮才能正常发育。但是当一名男士进行注射或服用额外睾酮药片时，
the brain and pituitary gland sense that body-wide levels are high enough and shut off production in the testes.
大脑和脑下垂体感应到全身水平已经足够高了，就会关闭睾丸中的生产。
With no testosterone being made down there, the concentration drops, and sperm don't develop.
由于不再生产睾酮，浓度就会下降，精子也就不再发育。
Previous attempts at male hormonal contraception involved weekly or monthly doses of synthetic testosterone.
此前男性激素避孕的尝试方法是每周过每月注射合成的睾丸激素。
And if you add progestin, these injections, implants, or patches worked even better.
如果加入孕酮，这些注射、植入或贴剂效果更好。
But even though they were good at stopping sperm production, there were drawbacks. It was difficult to get synchronized, steady levels of testosterone and progestin.
即使它们擅于阻止精子产生，还是会有缺点。睾酮和孕酮的协调稳定很难掌握。
And weekly, or even monthly, injections aren't as convenient as a daily pill you can take at home.
每周每月的注射也不如每天在家一片药来的方便。
Birth control doesn't work if you can't get people to use it.
如果大家不使用的话，避孕药也无法奏效。
Plus, some men had unpleasant side effects like pain at the injection site, acne, or changes in mood including more aggression.
另外，一些男性还出现了不良的副作用，比如注射部位疼痛、痤疮或心情的改变，包括更具攻击性。
Researchers were wary of giving the necessary big doses of oral testosterone, too, because previous studies have shown that this can be really hard on the liver.
研究人员也要提防口服睾酮类药物的必要大剂量，因为此前有研究表明这对肝脏不好。
Not to mention, the body clears this orally-delivered testosterone pretty quickly so pills have to be taken twice a day.
更不用提身体清除这些口服睾酮类药物的速度太快啦，所以一天得吃两次药。
So what makes this new male pill different?
那么是什么让这种新型男性药片如此不同呢？
This research is a team effort from scientists at the University of Washington and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.
这项研究是华盛顿大学和洛杉矶生物医学研究所科学家们的共同成果。
And they presented their work at the recent Endocrine Society meeting in Chicago.
他们在近期在芝加哥举行的内分泌学会上介绍了自己的成果。
Their experiments focused on a compound called dimethandrolone undecanoate or DMAU.
他们的实验集中于一种被称为dimethandrolone undecanoate（DMAU）的化合物。
It has a different structure than testosterone that lets it hang around in the body longer, which keeps levels steady even if it's only taken once a day.
和那些徘徊于身体中的睾酮不同，这种新成果有着不同的结构，即使每天仅服用一片也能维持稳定的水平。
DMAU is considered a pro-drug, because it's converted to an active molecule that interacts with the body after it's ingested.
DMAU被认为是一种前体药物，因为它会被转化成一种活性分子，被服用后和身体相互作用。
In this case, enzymes called esterases change DMAU into dimethandrolone or DMA.
在这种情况下，被称为酯酶的酶将DMAU变成DMA。
And DMA binds to the same hormone receptors as testosterone and progestin throughout the body.
随着睾酮和孕酮在身体内流通，DMA和同种激素受体捆绑。
Just like testosterone given in a pill or injection,
就像药片和注射剂中的睾酮一样，
DMA tricks the body into producing less testosterone in the testes, so concentrations there drop and sperm aren't produced.
DMA诱使身体在睾丸中产生少量睾酮，因此浓度下降，也不再产生精子。
When the researchers tested this in animals it worked pretty well. It even stopped sperm production in rabbits, who have legendary fertility.
研究人员在动物上的试验相当有效。甚至还能阻止兔子体内的精子生产，兔子可是有着传奇般的生育能力啊。
Sounds promising, right? This research is getting a lot of attention, but it's still in the early stages.
听起来很有戏，对不？这项研究得到了很多关注，但仍在开发的早期阶段。
Here's how the recent experiment went down: researchers had 83 men between ages 18 and 50 take DMAU pills daily for 28 days.
近期实验进展是这样的：研究人员让83名年龄在18到50岁之间的男性每天服用DMAU药片，为期28天。
They also took blood samples before and after, to check for hormone levels and other health markers like cholesterol.
服药前后还采取了血样以便检查他们的激素水平和其他健康状态标志，如胆固醇。
And the scientists found that the testosterone in the participants' blood decreased to very low levels —
科学家发现参与者血液中的睾酮降至非常低水平—
levels that suggested that sperm production was effectively shut down.
这种水平表明精子生产得到有效关闭。
Now, it's important to note though that they didn't actually measure sperm count. This study was mostly to test whether the pill is safe. And it seems like it is!
现在要注意到他们并未真正测量精子数。这项研究主要是测试药片是否安全。似乎是安全的。
The participants didn't report any significant changes in sex drive, sexual function, or any serious side effects with their livers or kidneys, which were all potential concerns.
参与者并未报告任何性欲、性功能上的明显变化，也没有肝脏或肾脏上的严重副作用，这些都是安全隐患。
Some men had mild weight gain and increased red blood cell count.
一些男性体重稍有增加，红血细胞总数也有增加。
And some had slightly decreased levels of the good form of cholesterol, but these weren't serious problems.
一些男性良性胆固醇水平有所下降，但这并不是严重问题。
The research team is starting another study soon that will follow men taking the DMAU pill for a longer period of time,
研究团队很快开始另一项研究，追踪长时间服用DMAU药片的男性，
and take semen samples to measure their sperm production.
并采集他们的精子样本以测量他们的精子生产。
So whether it's this team or another that makes the breakthrough... safe, convenient, reversible male birth control will definitely be a pretty big deal.
所以不论有没有团队做出重大突破，安全、方便且可复的男性避孕药绝对是个了不起的事。
And you know who else is a big deal? SR Foxley, our SciShow President of Space.
你知道还有谁超了不起么？科学秀太空栏目的董事长SR Foxley。
He's actually pretty humble, but he's a big deal to us because he helps make SciShow possible every month
他为人谦逊，但是对我们而言，他超级了不起，因为他帮助我们实现每月的节目
so we can bring you the latest in science news and dig deep into big questions. Thanks SR! You are the best!
因此我们可以为大家带来最新的科学讯息并深入进行探讨。感谢SR！你是最棒的！
And to learn more about how you can help us out too, check out patreon.com/scishow.
了解如何赞助科学秀，请登录patreon.com/scishow
