Essay on The Effects Of Birth Control

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Richard Bradford IV.

Mr. Jonathan Bishop

Birth Control Report

Tuesday March 28, 2000

The Effectiveness of Birth Control

Today’s woman has many birth control options that allow her to plan whether or not she

has children, when she has children, and the age difference between her children. This paper is

designed as an overview of available options about choosing a birth control method that matches

the physical, emotional and lifestyle needs. I personally feel that the pill is a excellent, affordable,

99.5% effective method of birth control.

According to Contraceptive Technology, combination pills are approximately 99.9 percent

effective if used perfectly. What that means is that one in 1,000 women taking the Pill will get

pregnant in the period of a year. In real-life use, about 3 percent of users get pregnant in the

course of a year Statistics state that this is “usually due to missing one or more pills.” However,

two things that should be remembered. Statistics are not everything--the best form of birth

control is the one you will use correctly and consistently. Oral contraceptives provide no

protection from sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. So if that is a concern, you should

combine the Pill with condoms for an unbeatable combination!

At any stage of life, a woman may find that one method of birth control suits her needs

better than others. Periodic review of available birth control options will help ensure in choose a

method that best meets your current lifestyle. Some factors to consider that might be important

include method effectiveness, permanency, convenience and protection against sexually

transmitted diseases (STDs).

Some questions that I have are, how safe and effective is the method, will the method

affect my sex drive or my partner’s sex drive, is there an age at which I should stop using

hormone-based contraceptives, will the birth control method affect my ability to have children in

the future, what are my birth control options if I am breastfeeding, what birth control method

would you recommend for me at this stage of my life, these are some common question that might

and could be asked to be answered by an health care professional.

It can be very confusing trying to figure out what these numbers mean. Contraceptive

effectiveness is usually reported as a percentage. These different effective numbers represent

success in “women years.” So if a form of birth control is 98 percent effective, that means that,

on average, 98 out of 100 women using it for one year will not get pregnant. Occasionally,

contraceptive effectiveness is reported in terms of “failure rates.” So in the above content, the

same form of birth control would have a 2 percent failure rate, meaning that 2 out of 100 women

using this form of birth control would get pregnant in the period of one year. You also often see

two numbers reported for each form of birth control, ideal and typical. Ideal represents the level

of effectiveness if used perfectly every time; typical rates take into account human failure. Here’s

a neat trick: you can compute the effectiveness of combining two forms of birth control by

multiplying the numbers. So for example, if you combine a condom (12 percent typical failure

rate) with spermicidal foam (21 percent typical failure rate), the failure rate plummets to 2.5

percent.

Most people think that the timing of taking the pill is important new statistics say. The

timing of when you take the pill makes little difference. The reason doctors tell women to take

the pill at the same time every day is so that they want forget. There is no need to set the clock

unless you think you will completely forget otherwise. Where you are taking one day’s pill right

before bedtime and the next day’s pill when you wake up, but a few hours will not make a

difference. The only exception to this rule is if you are on very lose dose pills and are having

problems with spotting. In those cases, varying the time at which you take the pill can increase

spotting, but it won’t decrease effectiveness no matter what.

What most doctor’s recommend is that you try to associate taking your birth control pills

with an activity you do every day. For example, brush your teeth in the morning, or with

breakfast. But, if you do these activities at a different time some days, you really don’t need to

worry.

For some users the pill can have undesirable and sometimes serious side effects such as

weight gain, nausea, hypertension, or the formation of blood clots or noncancerous liver tumors.

The risk of such effects increases for women above the age of 35 who smoke. Pills are obtainable

only by prescription and after a review of a woman’s medical history and check of her physical

condition.

In 1991 the FDA approved the use of the norplant, a long-lasting contraceptive that is

implanted under the skin on the inside of a woman’s under arm. The implant consists of six

matchstick-size flexible tubes that contain a synthetic hormone called progestin. Released slowly

and steadily over a five-year period, this drug inhibits ovulation and thickens cervical mucus,

preventing sperm from reaching eggs. The FDA approved the use of Depo-Provera in 1992.

This injectable contraceptive contains...