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Mike and I were talking about abortion and how crazy it makes some of the people in my family, and I said something like -- "If only there was an easy, reversible way to block the vas deferens, I'd get that for the boys in a heartbeat."

Well, it should have come as no surprise to find out that there is indeed such a product. A couple of them even. They're called Vas Occlusive Male Contraception and we should have this now. Of course we don't because it's something that gets injected one time and works for years and years, it's really cheap, and it's really cheap to reverse. What drug company it their right mind would spend millions of dollars getting something approved by the FDA when there is no hope of selling an expensive, daily drug?

One Vas Occlusive, RISUG, was developed in India. It can make men sterile for 10 to 15 years. Animal models show that it is completely reversible.

Recently, RISUG went through Stage 3 clinical trials in India, but as a permanent contraceptive solution and not as a reversible contraceptive. “You inject it, and it becomes a permanent plug,” Vahdat says. “Downstream, they plan to make it reversible, but they got it to market as a permanent contraceptive.”

Here's a conclusion of the recent paper:

Why the drug is still not in market after 3–4 decades of research? Towards answering this one must understand that regulatory measures take time and these requirements help protect people from potentially harmful products. Looking for an alternative, effective and reversible male contraceptive, hormonal methods of male contraception were developed, but none could reach the markets due to undue side effects, lack of uniformity in results and also need for long-term administration. Preclinical and clinical journey of RISUG® demonstrates high efficacy and safety of the drug. With regard to reversibility, safety and efficacy trials have been performed only on animal models. Before putting RISUG® into market, its reversibility needs to be clinically verified.

Another major concern inhibiting the progress of RISUG® is lack of interest from pharmaceutical industries. In 2000, a survey found 83% of men from various countries are willing to accept male contraceptive. Despite, pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to pursue the idea to avoid losing the thriving global markets for female contraceptives and condom that value to billions each year. Initially, RISUG® attracted some interest from pharmaceutical companies. However, considering it as an inexpensive one time procedure manufactures retracted.

Taking in to account the ever increasing population of countries like India, there is a demand for family planning, thus RISUG® caught attention of the Government. Apart from scientific and monetary matters, major hindrance that stands in the way of this revolutionary male contraceptive is men itself. In the male dominating society it has always being tough for men accepting the responsibility of family planning. Today the world communities are evolving and there is increased focus on involvement of men from supporting and understanding female partner’s reproductive health to engaging men as contraceptive users. Various studies are coming up engaging men as potential clients of family planning and surveys indicate about young adults being more willing to use male contraceptive methods. The perspective also varies by country and demographical backgrounds; a wider acceptability has been reported amongst men with advanced educational background and stable employment. Nevertheless, scientists are pushing ahead and the momentum and buzz in the field is reflecting fresh optimism.

NIH study: RISUG® as a male contraceptive: journey from bench to bedside. Barkha Khilwani, Ayesha Badar, Abdul S. Ansari, and Nirmal K. Lohiya

Finally, here's a 2011 article from Wired: The Revolutionary New Birth Control Method for Men. 2011! We should have this already!