Vivian Lobo, MSc

PhD student, National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai, Indiaa, Italy

“Growing up in India, one topic that was I always saw being discussed in the media was population control. There were always so many ads on TV talking about female contraception. As I became a scientist, I became more aware of how these hormones can affect women’s physical and mental health. Unfortunately, women in India don’t have great access to education, so they are told from a young age to take contraceptive pills but don’t always understand the implications. It just hit me that men should take some of the burden too, to do their part. But when I was going through the literature, I saw that most research is focused on female contraception. On some level, it is up to us scientists to lead this change, to take the focus off female contraception a little. So now I research sperm motility, so that we can understand how to make it less motile, and hopefully we can develop a male contraceptive in the future.”