Zapping Testicles With Ultrasonic Pulses Shown To Be Effective Contraceptive
Treated Testis The testis is composed of many tubes called "seminiferous tubules." The seminiferous tubule on the left is from a testis that was not treated with ultrasound while the tubule on the right is from a testis that was treated with ultrasound. The ultrasound-treated tubule is completely lacking testicular sperm and has lost almost all immature germ cells, decreasing its overall diameter while greatly increasing the amount of "empty" space in the center of the tubule. Courtesy James Tsuruta and Paul Dayton An ultrasound zap to the testicles can stop the production of sperm, reducing overall sperm count to a level that would render males infertile, according to a new study involving rats. Further studies are still needed to test how long this new contraceptive method would last, and whether infertility could be reversed. But for the researchers studying rat and monkey testicles, the early results are pretty gratifying. Researchers...