Get vaccinated against measles, mumps… pregnancy

Peter Sutovsky, a researcher at the University of Missouri-Columbia (my alma mater), is developing “the ultimate female contraceptive: a vaccine that would make sperm bounce off eggs like they were brick walls.”
The vaccine would only require an annual booster shot, and would work by preventing sperm from “burrowing” into an egg. Though Sutovsky is researching immunization for women, other scientists have studied a similar vaccine for men.
Many are skeptical of the vaccination approach: Vaccines are tricky, said [Rajesh Naz, a West Virginia University reproductive immunologist]. Even well-established vaccines, like for measles or tetanus, have a failure rate. Individual immune systems can overreact or underreact. Another problem is getting enough antibodies, which usually patrol the bloodstream, in the mucous membranes where fertilization occurs.
The odds are long. But if Sutovsky is successful, the result will be another non-hormonal form of birth control. We could definitely use that.