This comic was originally published in French by Belgian magazine Médor.
Dates of publication: 06/2021 (original), 07/2023 (English)
Length: 10 pages
Download (pdf): low res (725kB) / high res (3MB)
License: CC BY-NC-SA
Translation: fr (original)
...And there's more content available in French.
TINY LIL’ BALLS Discovering the contraceptive testicular ring - By Guillaume Lion One summer night 150 million sperm per millilitre! … Can you believe it? Impressive! What a stallion, Sergio! Oh yeah! Above average! Wow… Sergio is very fertile! that’s me But now, thanks to this silicone ring I bought on the internet for €37, I’ve taken control of my fertility! I’ve gone down to under 1 million sperm per millilitre. Therefore I am officially contracepted! I always had this feeling that I was sterile… I think my balls are too small. Sergio, a friend Does it hurt? I had a bit of a rash in the beginning, but apart from that there are no secondary effects! My IUD* makes my period way more intense… More painful, more abundant and longer! *intrauterine device It’s great that you use contraception, Sergio. It’s sexy! Thanks! Maud, my girlfriend 2 Get with the program, Guillaume! Join the fellowship of the ring! Yeah, but… …Is this thing legit? Do you see a doctor for it? Yeah ! Here… Dr Daniel Murillo Gynaecologist - Andrologist C.H.U. Saint-Pierre (Brussels) 02 535 34 06 Clinical trials have shown the efficiency and the reversibility of the method over a maximum of 4 years* on “normally fertile” men. So, you will have to do a semen analysis… But first we will see if everything’s fine with your genital apparatus. Does the presence of my intern bother you? Er… no, not at all… *Why 4 years? Because there hasn’t been any longer study yet. Here is a pair of normal-sized testicles. Hell yeah! Wait a minute… Why is he saying that?! Everything’s in its rightful place… Now show me how you put your ring on… May I? …There you go, perfect. He must have felt that I have a complex! 3 You must wear it 15 hours per day. You may, of course, take it off during intercourse. There is one activity that is not recommended while wearing the ring: sport climbing. If you fall, there’s a risk that the harness squashes your testicles. Oh yeah? Damn, I climb… Take the ring off when you climb. Then you can compensate by wearing it at night. I am obliged to mention that this method is not yet approved by the WHO. For this, large spectrum studies would have to be funded, but there is no money for this because “nobody’s interested”… But I get the feeling that it’s starting to be a thing... I hear people talking about it more and more. Yeah… Well, in your* circles perhaps… *Artistic circles I must admit… I’m not only doing this to free you from the IUD… …It’s also because I want to be a pioneer of male contraception! Yeah, I know. 4 Come on, show me! Will you promise you’ll still love me afterwards? Haha! Idiot! I promise! Ok. There… A FEW EXPLANATIONS The reason balls hang in the scrotum is so that they keep cool. The ring pulls them towards the pubis. It’s completely painless. Up there, it’s too hot for them to produce sperm. Drawings inspired by those of Bobika and Estine Coquerelle Testicular suspension has been practised since the 80’s, when activists groups under feminist influences researched heat-based contraception in Toulouse, France. This resulted in the development of the ‘Toulousian ball-raiser’ You can’t buy it anywhere–you have to make it yourself. It looks like a pair of underwear with a hole. Maxime Labrit is the creator of the ‘Andro-Switch’ contraceptive ring. My goal wasn’t to sell it! I first created it for myself… And people liked it! I started to sell rings on the internet in 2019. Today*, there are 4000 users, including 3000 in France and 500 in Belgium. *In February 2021 5 In any case, I’m probably sterile… How could such tiny balls manufacture good sperm? At least that ends the dilemma as to whether or not we have kids! No choice! After all, it’s not such a bad thing that I’m sterile… Some people pay for that… The next day… Hello? Hello, this is Daniel Murillo. I have the result of your semen analysis. Your fertility rate is totally normal. You can start to wear the ring. Your partner must continue her contraception for the time being. In 3 months, you’ll have to do another semen analysis to see whether your fertility has dropped enough. To be honest, I’ve already started wearing it. After a few hours my balls hurt a bit…. Not in the place where they are though… …Where they used to be! Like an amputee whose missing limb hurts! Don’t worry! After two weeks, there shouldn’t be any more discomfort! 6 One day, at the physio.. Ouch, that’s pressing on my balls… I don’t feel like explaining… I’m just gonna lift my dick up a bit… Er… You have to keep your pelvis on the floor for this exercise! Arg… It kinda hurts... my balls. Cos I wear a contraceptive… er... ring. I’m just gonna go and take it off in the bathroom… No problem, go ahead! I actually also wear one! Really? That’s wild! It’s been two months… And I must admit… It’s really not much of a hassle! It’s crazy, you totally forget about it! Quite true… I actually forgot it when I went rock climbing… 7 And I remembered it in a difficult section... Oh my god! It can’t be! I forgot to take it off! If I fall I’ll smash my nuts! Concentrate, for heaven’s sake! And suddenly, I fall! This is it… It’s the end.. Well… The harness didn’t push against my pubis at all! My balls are saved! What did you say? I did it for science today! What’s he on about? No idea. 8 Heat-based contraception has just a couple of inconveniences in the end: • It makes my willy look silly • Having to do a sperm analysis every 3 months (which means dropping my semen off at a lab after two days of abstinence) wearing the ring 15 hours a day whereas I sleep at least 9 hours 45 minutes of physio means that I still need to wear it another hour… Ok, I’m gonna fall asleep with it. I’ll take it off during the night. Click The feeling of fighting for a ‘noble cause’ can help to overcome these inconveniences. Maud will be proud of me. Especially if someone’s willing to pay* me to talk about it… “Dear Médor...” *Not so well Two weeks later… “Hello Guillaume. We like your idea of a ‘gonzo’ comic on heat-based contraception…” I’d just like you to get up to date on the current ‘debate’ on heat based contraception in the scientific world. Chloé Andries, one of Médor’s* chief editors (*The Belgian magazine that first published this comic.) 9 What we don’t know yet are the potential undesirable long-term effects. Men with cryptorchidism, meaning an abnormal localisation of the testicules, are more prone to testicular cancer – a relatively rare disease. The only way to know whether testicular lifting would have the same effect would be to do a long-term study on a large population. For that, we need funding… When I talk about it to colleagues, they laugh… They esteem that men would never accept such a form of contraception… Luckily, that’s starting to change… The media has started to talk about it. One last question… Were you trying to reassure me when you said that my balls where normal-sized? What?!? No, not at all! I was just performing your andrological examination! 10 I learned that my general practitioner was interested in heat-based contraception. He started to see several patients and he even organises a peer support group. …And I realised that my ring was held much better when I wore briefs instead of shorts. Not bad! Stylish! You mean boxers? No, daddy undies. ‘Though boxers do hold quite well too… …After 3 months, my sperm count was still too high... Probably because my ring was too large, so it didn’t support my balls enough… It’s a bit lame, but I think I might’ve overestimated the size of my penis… Now, I have a slightly smaller model. I did another semen analysis after one month. And… At last! Only 100.000 sperm per millilitre! I’m contracepted! Congratulations! Well done! End.
