SAN DIEGO — Scientists at the Salk Institute announced promising results in the quest for a male birth control method.

Professor Ron Evans said they treated male mice with an existing class of drugs called HDAC, or histone deacetylase, inhibitors, which blocked sperm production and fertility in mice.

"It's a little bit like putting a car into neutral," Evans said. "It's still there; everything is going, but you're not going anywhere."

Evans explained how the treatment prevents sperm production, is non-hormonal, and has no effect on libido. He also said if mice go off the pill, fertility quickly returns.

"It gives a new option, I think, for the concept of birth control where men can participate equally in the way that women have for the last 70 years," he said.

Kaytlyn and Ryan Collins are a married couple starting to think about their family's future. 

Kaytlyn Collins said they have used condoms, and she has used an IUD and birth control, often with negative side effects.

"My friends and I, we've all joked about just having our partners get a vasectomy because it's literally easier than taking birth control," she said. 

Surveys show many men in the United States are interested in using male contraceptives. 

Ryan Collins said he would be all in when the Salk treatment became available because it would allow him to participate equally with his wife in their family planning. 

"Having something that just cuts off the supply, that seems like an obvious and really good solution," he said. 

Evans said they still have more testing to do before eventually moving on to human clinical trials, but he believes their breakthrough holds a lot of hope for the future.

"It's easy to do, it's effective, it's reversible, and it does not impact libido. So it's everything that you want," he said. "But it gives men [the] power to make that decision, just like it did for women."