At first glance, COSO looks like a hot tub for mice that was manufactured and designed by Apple. The sleek hand-sized tub comes in matte black and white, accented by a strip of blue light around its rim, and has an outlet for a modern charging cable. The elegant gadget is the latest evolution of birth control designed for anyone with testes. This latest device bombards a pair of testes with ultrasound frequencies that will (hopefully) render sperm immotile.
COSO, which was designed by German graduate student Rebecca Weiss, made it to the international top 20 at the 2021 James Dyson Award. “When my partner and I were looking for an alternative method, we became aware of the lack of male contraceptives,” Weiss wrote in her application.
While hormonal birth control has been zeroing in on ovaries since 1960, options targeting the male reproductive system have remained virtually unchanged since that time. “It’s basically condoms, vasectomies and withdrawal — if you consider that a method,” says John Amory, a birth control researcher and men's health specialist. “Female contraceptives are great but there are a lot of women who can’t take them or tolerate them for various reasons. That leaves couples with limited options.”
A recent investigation by Komo News revealed that the federal government has funded only 30 studies on birth control designed for males since 2005, compared to more than 500 studies on erectile dysfunction during the same period. Male birth control advocates argue that its development is an important step towards gender equality and may lower the rate of unexpected pregnancy, which has hovered around 40-50 percent globally for years.
