The Many Ways to Prevent Pregnancy

You can find a wide range of ways to prevent pregnancy. Some of these depend on interfering with fertilization by creating artificial barriers between a man's sperm and a woman's egg, while others manipulate a woman's actual cycle. Still others amalgamate those techniques with the destruction of the sperm before it can get to the egg. Other methods of contraception are far more permanent, for example men undergoing a vasectomy to keep sperm from playing any part at all, or women getting a tubal ligation to prevent eggs from reaching the uterus and becoming fertilized.

To be sure, some people still turn to earlier approaches to preventing pregnancy, a few of which have been used throughout the course of history, while others were developed using scientific knowledge gained before the arrival of the birth control pill. These tend to be dependent on creating a barrier between the egg and the sperm. Lots of women use an internal diaphragm, while men frequently use condoms. A plastic and copper IUD (intrauterine device) is another system used. Some people try to utilize more natural forms of contraception, such as by timing sexual activity in order to avoid the time when a woman is ovulating. Sorry to say, the failure rate of this approach can be as great as 20 percent, since no woman's menstrual cycle is exactly the same each month.

Contraception methods that depend more on chemical interventions were launched with the development of the birth control pill in the 1960s. The pill consists of the same hormones that regulate a woman's menstrual cycle, and essentially prevent her from ovulating. But because some women find it difficult to remember to take a pill each day, or have other issues with the pill, other techniques using those hormones were created. Now, women can use a contraceptive patch, for instance, where the hormones are taken up through the skin. Or she can get a hormone injection every few months, or use a drug-infused folding ring that is inserted into the vagina.

Some of the ways to prevent pregnancy concentrate more on the sperm than on regulating the woman's cycle. Spermicides kill the majority of the sperm, and can be used in the form of creams, foams, suppositories and gels. The contraceptive sponge, inserted up to six hours before intercourse is anticipated, is infused with spermicide. They are most reliable when used with another type of contraceptive.

Methods of birth control can even include emergency situations, like those where a woman has had unplanned, unprotected sex. The so-called "morning after pill" can prevent a fertilized egg from being implanted in the lining of the uterus, if taken within a certain time period. And even with unplanned sexual activity, spermicides will help to destroy most sperm and reduce the risk of becoming pregnant.

Among the most revolutionary and possibly the most welcome approach to contraception, though, doesn't involve a woman's efforts. Men have used condoms for many years, and those aren't about to disappear any time soon. But now a different sort of birth control pill is being developed, this time for men, that lowers their sperm count to practically zero while still preserving their testosterone levels. Women have always protested that they were required to take nearly all the responsibility for preventing pregnancy, while men expected to be able to have sex any time they wanted to with no responsibilities. This new means of male contraception may soon spread the accountability a bit more evenly.

One of the problems with taking the pill has always been that women had to remember to take one every single day. Other fears about using a hormone-based contraceptive relate to uncertainties pertaining to the chemicals. Many women remember that in the early days of the pill, high dosages of progesterone precipitated blood clots or strokes in some women. Despite the fact that those dosages have become substantially decreased, some women remain uncomfortable concerning the potential health risks.

Some of the challenges in choosing among the various ways to prevent pregnancy focus on a woman's preferences and level of comfort. For instance, if she is unwilling to use a diaphragm because she is uncomfortable with inserting things into her vagina, then she will be just as disinclined to use a contraceptive ring, suppository, or spermicide sponge that is also inserted. She might even be opposed to an IUD, notwithstanding its one time insertion. Her options, then, would be methods such as the pill, an injection or a skin patch.

Even if she doesn't object to the hormones, there can still be factors that make them a poor choice. Say she has the hardest time remembering even to swallow a vitamin each day. Is she apt to have better luck taking a daily birth control pill? She might instead opt for the contraceptive patch worn on the skin. Except, however, if she has a skin condition that would be aggravated by it, and consequently this approach would be ruled out. That still leaves hers with the option of the injection, however.

Some worries about the choice of birth control method may relate to the issue of spontaneity. If a woman would prefer not to interrupt the moment and stop to insert a contraceptive sponge or diaphragm or, in fact, ask the man to put on a condom, then a form of birth control that's always in the background, working constantly, will be a more suitable choice. Yet fears of sexually transmitted infections might require the use of a condom, since chemical forms of contraception won't protect against them.

If you think that birth control pills no longer have side effects, then you're correct to some extent, but not completely so. In the early days of the pill, some upsetting side effects started to appear within the first three or four years of its launch. There were some fairly mild ones, like queasiness and weight gain, or the more alarming effect of blurred vision. However, the most troubling effects of all were blood clots and in some cases strokes. This triggered a considerable amount of scientific investigation into what was happening. On the bright side, much was learned about women's health as the research was conducted.

Something researchers ultimately learned was that this new way of preventing pregnancy contained a higher level of progesterone than what was actually required. In the end, this dosage was substantially reduced to as low as 10 percent of what it had been at first. In some cases, progestin replaced progesterone, with less serious side effects. Other facts were discovered, as well. Women who smoked or who had hypertension or other cardiovascular problems had an elevated risk of things like strokes than those who didn't have these factors in their lives. So health care professionals can now evaluate a woman's physical health and use this information when prescribing an appropriate form of birth control.

Most of the time, these unwanted effects of birth control pills are not actually something to be concerned about. They come about because the body has to adjust to the new levels of hormones, and often they disappear entirely after several months of taking the pill. In fact, the possibility of side effects tends to be less with these pills than with some other forms of contraception, like the skin patch, as the patch contains higher levels of hormones.

Problems aren't always confined to the period of time that you're actually taking the pill. A 2002 study by the Kinsey Institute concerning long term effects of certain types of contraception revealed that some women's libido and overall well being was negatively affected when they stopped taking the pill. However, the underlying reason for this problem was established in a further study in 2006, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. It suggested that the problems that developed after women discontinued use of the pill may be prompted by the reduction of testosterone levels, which may not be entirely reversible.

Some women undergo a reduction in their libido and certain other symptoms when they stop taking the pill, but other ways to prevent pregnancy that use hormones can also create problems after they've been used for a certain amount of time. For instance, although a birth control injection might liberate a woman from her menstrual cycle for three months on end, in some women the Depo Provera shot leads to loss of calcium and bone strength after just two years of use. And the lost bone density may never be entirely regained.

The Mirena IUD differs from other intrauterine devices in that it contains progestin. This hormone is also found in a number of contraceptive pills, but the Mirena only requires a tiny dose, because the hormone is released directly into the uterus. However, after removal of this device, enough women have suffered side effects that the pattern has been referred to as the "Mirena crash." Problems can include lengthy periods of heavy bleeding, weight fluctuations, and long-term loss of energy.

A particularly frustrating complication with those forms of contraception that use hormones is that birth control pills seem to have various effects on cancer. The latest available information implies that women who take the pill could have an elevated risk of cancers of the breast, cervix and liver, and at the same time, a reduced risk of endometrial and ovarian cancers. While most women would rather not stop using hormonal contraceptive methods completely, they need to be informed about these possible long term effects. Continuous interference with the body's natural processes can sometimes turn out troubling consequences.

Some women may be inclined to ignore the adverse reactions or after effects of various ways of preventing pregnancy, since all types of contraception seem to involve problems of one sort or another. One helps clear up acne while another worsens it. The pill both reduces and elevates the risk of cancer, according to which form of cancer it is. It can be challenging to find a method which doesn't create some kind of worrisome outcome. Yet these concerns can't be disregarded and must be examined in order to make an informed decision.

The natural method of birth control has the lowest success rate among the various ways to prevent pregnancy. This approach means that no artificial measures are used to prevent pregnancy from happening; instead the couple attempts to avoid having sex during those times of the woman's monthly cycle when she is not likely to be ovulating. However, since no cycle is exactly the same each month, these calculations can never be completely reliable. The natural contraception method has only a 75 percent success rate, which means that one in every four women relying on this approach will get pregnant.

The forms of birth control with the highest success rates are typically the patches and injections. If you opt for monthly injections, for instance, the success rate can be as high as 99.9 percent, going only as low as 99 percent. The patch has approximately the same percentages. The injections which last for three months have a slightly lower success rate at 97 percent. Any of these methods has a higher success rate than an oral contraceptive at 92 percent. IUDs show similar numbers to the injections and patches, and the hormone ring which is inserted into the vagina ranges between 95 to 99 percent.

Methods of contraception that were used prior to the arrival of the pill have a much lower success rate. A diaphragm is effective only 80 percent of the time, and a condom stands at 86 percent. So you can be thankful that there are now so many ways to prevent pregnancy which are much more reliable. If you aren't concerned about factors such as having allergies to the patch, and aren't queasy about the thought of injections, then you might decide to simply choose the one that has the highest success rate.