Live Science, a source of news about scientific developments, reported that after 28 days’ use, the male pill “seemed to be safe.” Bone density and muscle mass, of course, are not apt to diminish much in one month. Sex drive, which witnessed a statistically significant drop among participants, did not altogether collapse, because sex drive is not just a function of testosterone. There is, as I described in “Cheap Sex,” far more to sexual stimulation than just a person’s hormonal fluctuations.

Elizabeth Keifer, writing in the Washington Post, avoids discussing the mechanism, never mentioning testosterone. An NBC News report similarly avoided reference to testosterone, noting only the unfortunate side effect of weight gain—three to nine pounds, considered “a small amount of weight” by Science News.

To their credit, CNN’s report on the pill uses the term “castrate.” Sanjay Gupta barely masks his skepticism about the pill’s likely low uptake when he asserts that “we’re closer than we have been before.” But mask it he does, while hinting—by what he does not say—that this may not be the product men (or women) are looking for.