There’s a new contraceptive for guys on the way

Ever sit back and think how easy your other half has it while you're on birth control?

Weight gain, mood swings, sore boobs - there are plenty of unpleasant side effects to being on different types of contraception that we ladies just have to grin and bear. That might be all about to change though as the men in our lives could soon be the ones taking precautions to stop babies coming along. A male contraceptive is going into clinical trials in early 2018. It's a topical gel containing synthetic progesterone and testosterone that sounds very promising indeed. It's been in the works for years and is actually a combination of two separate contraceptive gels that were developed for men, reports Romper. [caption id="attachment_262109" align="alignnone" width="800"] You may be able to wave goodbye to your pill.[/caption]   Both of those gels were shown in trials in 2012 to be very effective at lowering sperm in semen for a few days, so there are high hopes that this new gel will do the same. All going well, men will simply need to rub a teaspoon-sized amount of the gel onto an area of skin away from their manhood, such as their arm, every day and it'll keep whoever they have relations with for the next 72 hours or so from becoming pregnant. The trial will see 400 couples in the US, the UK, Italy, Sweden, Chile, and Kenya testing out the gel for four years - kind of an odd clinical trial to take part in, really. That long trial period means that even if the gel is successful, it'll be a long while before it's available to us.