Denmark, equality and the pill : who carries contraception?
For more than half a century, contraception has remained largely a women’s responsibility. The pill, which has become a symbol of that responsibility, has helped make contraception part of women’s everyday lives and bodies. In Denmark, a country often regarded as a model of gender equality, the financial, medical and mental burden of contraception still falls largely on women. As new male contraceptive methods have been under development for several years, one question remains : are young men ready to take on their share of the responsibility?
On the campus of the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) in Copenhagen, Alfred, Toby, Alexander et Oscar, young men from Generation Z, all agree on one point : contraception should be a shared responsibility. They also all say they would, in theory, be willing to take a male contraceptive pill if one were available. Yet this willingness in principle comes with the same reservation, as they are all concerned about potential side effects. None would accept a method that was less thoroughly tested or more burdensome than those currently used by women.
A molecule against fifty years of promises
Since the 1950s, the promise of a chemical male contraceptive has resurfaced without ever materialising. The first candidate, WIN-18446, tested on American prisoners in the 1950s, blocked sperm production until a toxic reaction with alcohol ended the trial. Later attempts stumbled on an obstacle more political than chemical — a World Health Organization trial over 95% effective was discontinued after men reported mood swings and reduced libido — side effects women have tolerated for decades. Male contraception remains research’s running joke, a breakthrough supposedly “five years away” for over sixty years.
Among the non-hormonal approaches being explored is one led by Dr Anders Rehfeld, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen and Rigshospitalet. His work targets CatSper, a channel that switches on sperm cells and gives them the final burst of movement needed to reach the egg. Blocking it stops sperm in their tracks, without touching hormones. Since 2020, his team has been adapting an existing molecule, still under patent, so it can be taken as a pill and reach the right place in sufficient quantities. Backed by the Lundbeck Foundation and researchers from Copenhagen and Münster, the project remains preclinical.
Ready to take contraception as long as it doesn't hurt too much
Denmark is regularly cited as one of the European countries at the forefront of gender equality. This image owes partly to a narrative of women’s liberation in wich the pull played a central role. For Anne Nørkjær Bang, a cultural studies researcher at the University of Southern Denmark specialising in gender and reproduction, this interpretation remains deeply rooted in Danish perceptions. Yet she argues that it “was never quite right”, as controversies surrounding the pill’s side effects existed from the very beginning.
This normalisation has also made the pill almost invisible in some relationships, “basically taken for granted”, as Bang puts it, with women often managing it alone while its effects remain outside the couple’s conversations.
An unequal tolerance for risk
This asymmetry becomes even more pronounced when male contraception enters the picture. Bang describes it as a “double standard” - side effects known since the early days of the female pill have gradually come to be accepted, while the mere prospect of reduced libido has been enough to slow equivalent male methods. The issue is not purely medical but reflects differing expectations of what men and women are meant to accept from their own bodies.
“Hormonal contraception will probably be less important for everyone in the future. It has a bad reputation now, and I can understand why men wouldn’t want to do that to their bodies — women don’t want it either today, so it makes sense that men would feel the same.” Bang predicts.
What is really at stake, then, is less a question of biology than of masculinity and trust and on that front, this generation is far from unanimous. A 2024 Ipsos survey across 31 countries found that 60% of Gen Z men believe efforts to promote gender equality now discriminate against men, against 40% of Gen Z women — a context where egalitarian demands coexist with a masculinist backlash and, at its most extreme, so-called “incel” (involuntary celibate) communities, a fringe not representative of young men as a whole.
Source: Ipsos in collaboration with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, International Women’s Day 2024, p.13. Graphic adapted by Caroline De Wit
Despite growing skepticism among Generation Z, other men are advocating for contraception to also be a male responsibility. Since 2015, the French collective Thomas Bouloù has been experimenting with testicular contraception, arguing for greater male involvement and making the male body a space for reproductive responsibility and reflection on masculinity. It remains to be seen whether women will be ready to trust their partners with contraceptive responsibility.
