Kerre Woodham: Male pill proposal flawed at conception

It seems ludicrous that millions of dollars, billions of brain cells and litres of pond scum are being sacrificed in the search for the perfect male contraceptive pill.

American scientists announced last week that, thanks to the study of pond scum, which swims in much the same way as sperm, they can turn off the sperms' tiny tails, thus preventing them from swimming furiously towards the egg in the great fertilisation race.

Why bother? Everyone knows contraception is a women's issue. It's girls who "get themselves pregnant", and girls who "trap" men by conceiving children. It's women who are regularly castigated for having abortions and women who are blamed for the nation's declining birth rate. Even when they're winning, they're losing. It's women who are at fault for having more children than they can afford, and women who are bludging off the welfare state by living on the DPB. The fathers are never mentioned.

Although women attempted to control their fertility for thousands of years, their lives were revolutionised in the 1960s with the production of the pill.

The sexual revolution, the women's liberation movement, women entering the workforce - all of this came about through reliable contraception.

I bet there are plenty of good old boys who wish it had never been invented. Women were so much easier to manage when they were continually pregnant and breastfeeding.

Nonetheless, the pill is here today, making the creation of a male pill irrelevant. It seems more of an intellectual exercise for researchers.

All very clever but what's the point? Given that women are the ones who bear the consequences of any contraception slip-up, they're still the ones who will be the most vigilant. And let's face it, what man wants to immobilise his very masculinity?

Men will never know the torment women experience over issues of fertility - the desperate and ongoing battle to dodge persistent and cunning sperm in one's young adulthood; the equally desperate desire to procreate that hits most women at least once or twice in their lives; and dealing with the consequences of pregnancy, be it unplanned or very much wanted, or indeed both.

We should stick to what we do best. Men are great at sperm production and distribution; women have become adroit at sperm evasion.

Researchers are wasting their time with the male pill. If they wanted to improve the lives of men and women, perhaps they could work on a magic pill that obviated the effects of PMS.

Now that really would be a boon for mankind.