So there is no misunderstanding, let me be clear:  

I am a big proponent of improving the convenience, safety, and efficacy of available contraceptive methods.  I am grateful that women today neither suffer the severe side-effects experienced by first-generation pill users, nor are forced to try desperate options like using crocodile dung and honey to prevent an unintended pregnancy. 

Even my feminist-empowerment-bone is completely tickled just knowing that the quiet conversations of yesterday between nurse practitioner and patient regarding "skipping that last week of pills and just starting the new pack" has gone public with the FDA's blessing of Seasonale.  I am optimistic that in addition to their approval of this 91-day pack of birth control pills (compared to a 28-day cycle), the FDA will ultimately approve Lybrel, helping women remain period-free all year-long. Seems like great news all around, especially for women.  

So, what's my deal?  While education and awareness around new ways of using birth control pills for contraception are welcome and needed, there are truly few new methods being brought to market.  This case holds especially true for men, for whom there are many viable methods hiding just behind the curtain.

Believe it or not, there are other male contraceptive options to choose beyond condoms, a vasectomy, "pulling out", or abstinence.  As FoxNews.com writes, "Men face a future medley of birth control methods as varied as the female lineup of sponges, pills and diaphragms."  On the horizon sits the male pill (and it has been sitting for quite some time) as well as an injection, the IVD, contraceptive patches, implants and creams.  

Yet, as MaleContraceptive.org, points out, the only way to use them now is to "participate in a clinical trial" — even though "after more than 80 years of research in France, China, India, Australia, and the United States, an impressive body of evidence supporting these methods has begun to accumulate."

In the past, we have accused a war on contraception at the policy level that has recently been accompanied by a spurt of news about new versions of the pill.  We'd be fooled if we thought this was a sign of something bigger.  The new pills are simple variations on the old ones that will offer convenience to women, but little else for curtailing problems like unplanned pregnancies.  

New methods of male contraception, on the other hand, would offer new options for preventing pregnancy to 50% of the population, and they would encourage more male sexual responsibility.  Now, that would be some news.