I read it as "health risks"... because of the context of the paragraph

What does "but these are healthy men" have to do with it? That paragraph is just poorly worded.

Clinical trials typically have something called a Data and Safety Monitoring Board, which periodically reviews safety (and, occasionally efficacy) data to decide if the trial should be halted prematurely. The DSMB is supposed to consider the potential benefits to the individual subjects and the population from which they're drawn, and weigh that against possible risks from the drug and the trial (e.g., complications from biopsies).

Since the subjects here are otherwise healthy men, who have other options for avoiding pregnancy, the DSMB should be fairly risk adverse and willing to kill the trial (as happened here). If, on the other hand, the trial were testing a new kind of anti-cancer therapy on patients with terminal cancer, the Board might be willing to tolerate a few more adverse events because the pay-off s are much higher.

The article seems to be saying, in a ham-fisted way, that the DSMB would have tolerated slightly more risk to women because pregnancy also carries its own risks.

So mental health isn't health, then? I beg to differ, so the paragraph still doesn't compute.

That must be it. You're right. Thankfully :) my mistake.

Plenty of men aren't there and don't feel guilty about it. And stigma? Only if you live in a very small, close-knit community. For men, unlike women, involvement is a choice. Not an easy choice, but still a choice.

There are still other risks/consequences of pregnancy for men (financial). Women have a choice post-sex, men don't.

Both of these things depend on what country you live in. The US, EU etc are not the world.

The biological consequences, on the other hand, are certain and universal.