Health Canada has given commendation for the first human clinical tests for a new male contraceptive device, which is said to be as effectual as a surgical contraception but that is completely reversible.

The birth control device is known as the Intra Vas Device. It is made up of two tiny, supple and hollow silicon plugs, each about one millimetre in diameter and one-and-a-half centimetres long.

Two plugs are entered via the scrotum into each testis and into the ductus deferens tubes that take sperm from the testes to the penis.

The tubes do not block up the fabrication of semen that is 90 per cent ejaculatory liquid, but do obstruct the 10 per cent of semen, which is made of sperm. The body simply reabsorbed the blocked sperm, and any sperm, which make it past the first plug, are blockaded by the second one.

The 20-minute process differs from a surgical contraception in which the ductus deferens tubes are in fact annihilate. Vasectomies can be reversed in a few cases by a expert microsurgeon but are frequently ineffective.

With the Intra Vas, the devices do not harm the vas deferns tubes and can be detached and re-inserted without difficulty and possibly time after time. Early studies indicate that the devices don’t interfere with libido, sensation, ability to have erections or to ejaculate.

Dr. Neil Pollock, a Vancouver physician who is a prominent expert on vasectomies will lead the initial trials of the Intra Vas Device, which begin this week. Shepherd Medical -- the U.S.-based company that invented the IVD procedure -- has chosen Pollock to head its scientific advisory board.

The study has already recruited 50 men from British Columbia and Quebec who want to have vasectomies. As part of the study, they will have the devices inserted, assessed and removed. They will then undergo a vasectomy.

Roslyn Tremblay, a spokeswoman for Health Canada, said, “It is a safety study, not a study to test effectiveness.”

If the experiments are productive, Pollock’s group will likely request approval for studies to inspect the efficiency of implanting the devices for a long time.

Former examinations in the US and Brazil have showed that the process productively blocks sperm in humans. Clinical trials involving monkeys found the same result. Clinical trials are ongoing in the U.S., where the device has still not received approval from the Food and Drug Administration.