Summary: M.spermatophilum is a bacteria that can infect your sperm cells and cause them to be unable to fertilize eggs. Potential Contraceptive?

Body: Today I heard about an STD that is increasing in prevalence called Mycoplasma genitalium. I read up about it and learned that mycoplasma are the smallest bacteria ever. They dont have a cell wall, dont need oxygen to thrive, and arent affected by penicillin. There are a bunch of types in the human body and like most bacteria some are good, some are bad, and some are neutral.

Mycoplasma spermatophilum is a species of mycoplasmas that can infect your sperm cells, but its rarely found in humans. However, it has been shown that sperm infected with this mycoplasma are unable to fertilize eggs in vitro.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_spermatophilum

"This mycoplasma species was originally isolated from human spermatozoa and a human cervix. It has been rare in humans because it was recovered from only 1 to 2% of the samples examined in two surveys. These initial samples were collected at a fertility clinic where it was noted that either eggs did not become fertilized with infected sperm or fertilized eggs did not implant in in vitro fertilization procedures."

So my theory is that, since bacteria are pretty easy to culture, could we intentionally infect ourselves with m. spermatophilum as a cheaper way to prevent pregnancy (since Vasalgel is taking forever to get here)?

  • How would we get it inside our dick?
  • Since sperm is constantly being created, could we package it as a pre-sex lub?
  • What are the negative effects of having an infection of m. spermatophilum?

This is just a theory, and I'm not a microbiologist. Just putting it out there incase someone is.