The world over the burden of contraception lies with women who must either take tablets regularly, or injections or subject themselves to the painful IUD insertion. Hormonal birth control pills do not suit all women and lead to weight gain. The IUD may last for up to six years, but is painful to insert and leads to spotting for up to six months. The other option was for couples to consent to using condoms, which as many women in Pakistan will testify, not all men agree to.

But this new technology could be used by men. Risug refers to Reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance. It is an injection that “creates a gel barrier in the male body that stops sperm from being able to fertilise an egg once they pass through it,” the Telegraph reported. The injection could work for up to 10 years and the best news is that it could even work on the spread of HIV/Aids. This would be a huge development for families in Larkana, where an HIV/Aids crisis unfolded three years ago in Pakistan.

According to the Census of 2017, the population of Pakistan is 207 million and the population is growing at a rate of 2.4%. There are approximately 85 million unwanted pregnancies and 40 million to 60 million abortions worldwide each year. Pakistan Population Council experts have said that a 2012 national study estimated there were 2.2 million abortions in Pakistan in 2012, an annual abortion rate of 50 per 1,000 women. They said that there were higher abortion rates in Balochistan and Sindh than in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Women here are not getting access to contraception, which is why this is happening. The new technology could aid in this unmet need.

The technology is Indian, created at the Indian Institute of Technology. Like Pakistan, India too has a family planning and population concern. The injection would offer families and couples an option less invasive than a vasectomy.

According to the Telegraph, “Risug works by injecting a gel cocktail into the vas deferens - the tubes that sperm pass through on their way from the testes to the penis. When it comes into contact with sperm, it ruptures their tails so they are incapable of fertilising an egg, even though the semen is still expelled.”

For those who may be concerned about reversing the injection, the experts said all that would take is a quick injection of water and baking soda to flush out the gel.

Scientifically, according to experts writing in Basic and Clinic Andrology, RISUG is a co-polymer of styrene and maleic anhydride offers long term contraception with safety, efficacy and it can be delivered by no-scalpel injection.