More male contraception options are in the pipeline, but experts say better education and support for initiatives is needed to overcome the half-century long barriers.
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According to Australian Government health information, there are over 10 contraceptive options available to women or people with uteruses compared to only two for men or people with penises.
At the moment, the options include only a condom or a vasectomy.
Researchers say this disparity has been shown to overwhelmingly place the contraception burden on females, not only impacting them physically, but mentally and financially.
Australia's most popular form of contraception - the pill - can cost women up to $290 a year. Finder.com.au compared this to men spending as little as $5 for a pack of 10 condoms.
But research shows that men want to share the burden of contraception with over 80 per cent of those aged 18 to 44 surveyed in the US willing to update their contraceptive options.
Why are there so few male contraceptive options?
Monash University drug discovery biology senior lecturer Dr Sabatino Ventura said the limited amount of male contraceptives may be attributed to birth control being seen as a "women's problem rather than a men's problem".
"The problem is accentuated because the people in power at pharmaceutical companies and government grant-giving bodies are usually men," he said.
"Their opinion is that we don't really need one because we've got it under control with the women."
Dr Ventura said male contraception faced barriers associated with lack of funding and the perception that it was unnecessary, given the options already available to women.
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"Pharmaceutical companies [...] just aren't convinced that they're going to make their money back on developing this sort of medicine," he said.
"It's still the older men who have the old traditional views who are in control of the funding, and that's why it really still hasn't progressed.
"But hopefully that'll change as young people [...] start to get a little bit older, and in more of a position of power in the pharmaceutical industry."
He said previous trials for male contraceptive pills have also failed due to men's lack of tolerance for side effects including acne, mood swings, headaches, nausea and weight gain.
"These aren't really very different to the side effects women get with their contraceptive pill," Dr Ventura said.
"However, women are just a lot more tolerant of those sorts of side effects [...] and men can't really cope with them."
University of Newcastle biological sciences senior lecturer Dr Geoffry De Iuliis said another reason there were few options for male contraception stemmed from the difference in male and female biology.
"With the hormone contraceptive for the female, we're basically stopping the ovulation of one cell," he said.
"With the male, we're producing about 1000 sperm per second, and knocking out millions of sperm compared to one cell is a really challenging task.
"That's not to say that there [aren't] being developments."
Could a male contraceptive pill become an option one day?
Dr De Iuliis said developments were exploring hormonal methods which included depleting testosterone in males or augmenting the reproductive system to stop sperm production.
"They are probably the more feasible options at the moment [...] largely because the ideas behind them are quite accepted socially," he said.
Dr De Iuliis said research was also looking into non-hormonal or chemical methods which were primarily coming out of the US.
"[They] target a very specific pathway that's only found in sperm production," he said.
"They've had quite successful data coming out showing that they get full reversible sterility in models, so they're going to look at that in humans soon."
He said University of Newcastle was also studying its own non-hormonal methods which aimed to stop sperm production or function.
"We could knock out their motility," he said.
"That would stop sperm function or at least [the sperm] reaching the egg. The challenge with that, again, is that we have to be extremely efficient and knock out every single sperm."
Dr Sabatino Ventura's lab at Monash University is working on a male contraceptive method he calls a "chemical vasectomy".
"We are trying to use chemicals to interrupt [the brain] message so that the sperm doesn't get moved out of its storage site," Dr Ventura said.
"When ejaculation happens, the process works but there's no sperm present in the ejaculate and that makes the man infertile."
University of Melbourne reproductive development and biology research fellow Dr Brendan Houston said his lab is working on stopping a gene from producing energy vital for sperm's ability to move.
"We found that if we target this particular gene and prevent it from performing its normal function then the sperm can't swim properly, and so they can't actually reach and interact with the egg," he said.
Dr Houston said his research was currently being conducted on animal models to understand how the energy was produced and how to develop a treatment to block the gene.
"We're undertaking a few studies now [...] and then eventually maybe we'll be able to take these through some trials and see if we can make it a nice new contraceptive for men."
What might other male contraceptives look like?
Dr Houston said there were a variety of different administration routes for male contraceptives being studied including one as a hormonal cream that's rubbed on the shoulders - currently being tested in the US under the name Nestorone.
"This is absorbed through the skin, and then it's able to basically undertake its effect by its hormonal control and preventing sperm from being produced," he said.
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He said there was also research into a hydrogel, called ADAM, that would be injected into the vas deferens - the tube that carries sperm out of the testes - to work as a reversible vasectomy.
"This basically blocks the sperm from exiting, and [it] is also reversible," he said.
"If you want to go back and get that reversed, you can get a substance injected into the site - it'll degrade that hydrogel barrier, and the sperm will be able to flow through."
German-based company COSO has also designed a cup-shaped device touted as an ultrasonic 'testicle bath' that temporarily stops sperm motility.
The device is still in its development phase and seeking financial support for clinical trials.
But Dr Houston said the "gold standard" would still be a contraceptive in the form of a pill.
Changing attitudes
Dr Geoffry De Iuliis said there was a growing demand for new male contraceptives in the community.
"We haven't had a new contraceptive since 1965. There's been no new male contraceptives for the past century or so," he said.
"There's really an appetite for it, and the other thing is that there is good data to show that men are really serious about taking some of the burden of family planning."
Dr Houston said it was hard to predict how soon another option for male contraception would become available, but thought it was still at least a few years away.
"The majority of them will take a number of years to go through [...] different trials," he said.
"It's also a bit more difficult to get drugs into the market these days with more stringent checks that need to be ticked off, and making sure that there's no side effects to particular drugs.
"Probably in the next decade, we might be seeing some."
But he said it was important for men to become aware of the potential for more options and the possibility of taking up some contraception responsibility from their counterparts.
"It would be good for them to use the material and the websites out there to better educate themselves," he said.
"It's definitely time for men to share the burden of contraception, and I think that many men out there are very happy to do this when these sort of products become available."
