- We have tested a new type of substance that has the potential to change the cervical secretions so that sperm cannot swim into the uterus, says Sebastian Brusell Gidlöf, gynecologist and head of operations at the Medical Unit Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at Karolinska University Hospital.
According to Sebastian Brusell Gidlöf, there is a great demand for hormone-free alternatives to protect against a pregnancy that women can control themselves.
Not least the need is great among women who, for various reasons, such as illness, cannot use hormonal contraceptives.
- Then there are a lot of women who may be able to use hormonal contraceptives but have had side effects or for other reasons do not want to use them, but still need to protect themselves against pregnancy.
There is also a large group of women who could benefit from this if it becomes available on the market.
The sperm are stopped
The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, is a collaboration between researchers at Karolinska University Hospital, the Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska Institutet.
Thomas Crouzier, researcher at the Department of Glycoscience at KTH, has been primarily responsible for the work with the gel, which has now been tested at Karolinska.
The researchers have collected cervical secretions from young, healthy women during ovulation and, as a first step, performed experiments in the laboratory.
- The sperm then swim through the secretion in the lab without problems, but if you treat the secretion with this substance, the sperm cannot swim through, says Sebastian Brusell Gidlöf.
In the next step, the tests were carried out on sheep, with the same results.
But so far, no tests have been done on humans and there are still a number of questions to be answered before the substance, which is intended to be used as a vaginal gel, can be put on the market.
One of these is the question of possible side effects.