99 5 Effective Method Of Birth Control example essay topic

Richard Bradford IV. Mr. Jonathan Bishop Birth Control Report Tuesday March 28, 2000 The Effectiveness of Birth Control Todays 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 m partners 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.

Heres 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 days pill right before bedtime and the next days 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 wont decrease effectiveness no matter what. What most doctors 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 dont 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 womans 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 womans 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 a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone and is given four times a year. When conception is not desired, the time to avoid sex is about midway a womans menstrual cycle; this was not discovered until the 1930's, when studies established that an egg is released (ovulation) from an ovary about once a month, usually about 14 days before the next menstrual flow. Conception may occur if the egg is fertilized during the next 24 hours or so of if intercourse happens a day or two before or after the egg is released, because live sperm can be present. Therefore, the days just before, during, and immediately following ovulation are considered unsafe to have unprotected intercourse; other days in the cycle are considered safe.

Birth control based on calendar records of menstrual cycles, known as the rhythm method, has proved unreliable, because cycles may vary due to fatigue, illness, or physical or emotional stress. However, the time of ovulation, and therefore when to avoid intercourse, can be determined by observing a number of physical changes. A womans body temperature rises slightly during ovulation and remains high until just before the next flow is heavier. As the quantity of mucus is reduced, it becomes cloudy and viscous and may disappear.

These signals indicate the approximate time of ovulation and have led to a method of birth control called natural family planning. The avoidance of intercourse around ovulation is the only birth control method approved by the FDA. Birth Control, or limiting reproduction, has become an major importance in the contemporary world because of the problems posed by population growth. Until relatively recently most cultures encouraged such growth.

The increasing at a faster rate than its means of support, but 19th-century reformers who in response advocated birth control met bitter opposition from physicians. Infection with the HIV virus is a greater threat to the health of many sexually active individuals than is an unplanned pregnancy. Pills provide no known protection against HIV infection. Condoms should be used instead of or in addition to pills if protection against HIV is desired in an intimate sexual relationship. Abstinence and a long-term mutually faithful relationship are the safest approaches to avoiding HIV infections transmitted by intercourse.

Some disadvantages and cautions with taking any kind of birth control is. Pills must be taken daily, expense, unwanted menstrual cycle changes, nausea or vomiting, headaches, depression, decreased libido, cervical ectopia and chlamydia infection, other infections possibly, thrombophlebitis, pulmonary emboli; and other cardiovascular disease, glucose intolerance, gallbladder disease, hepatocellular adenomas, cancer, other side effects, estrogenic effects, progestogenic effects, and androgenic effects. Taking pills is complicated, and compliance is poor for many individuals. Pills must be taken ever day. When pill use is inconsistent or incorrect, failure rates rise to high levels.

The high cost of pill in many pharmacies may prompt some women to discontinue pills. Pills may be associated with menstrual changes including missed periods, very scanty bleeding, spotting, or breakthrough bleeding. Nausea may occur in the first cycle or so of pill use or, less commonly, in subsequent cycles. Headaches may start in a woman who has not previously had headaches or may become worse than they were before starting pills. Rarely, changes in vision accompany these headaches. Depression (sometimes severe) and other mood changes may occur in women on pills.

Some women experience a decreased interest in sex or a decreased ability to have orgasms. Decreased libido may be due to decreased levels of free testosterone caused by oral contraceptives. Chlamydial cervicitis is more common in women on pills. Pill can cause cervical ectopia, a condition in which part of the cervical surface near the opening of the canal becomes covered by the delicate mucus-secreting columnar cells that normally line the cervical canal. With an ectopion, the cervix of the pill user is more vulnerable to chlamydia trachomatis infection, although no evidence exists that this increased risk places women using OCs at greater risk for pelvic inflammatory disease (salpingitis). Although urinary tract infections occurred at an increased rate in women using pills in the Royal college of General Practitioners Study, this link was not found in the oxford / FPA Study.

Women using pills tend to have intercourse more frequently and it is difficult to know if infections are due to intercourse-induced cystitis or to effects of pills. Other early studies found that women using pills appeared to have a slightly higher incidence of bronchitis, viral illness such as chickenpox, cervical ectopion, or vaginal discharges. Sterilization, If you are certain that you do not want children in the future, sterilization offers a safe and effective method of birth control. Male sterilization is 99.9% effective; female sterilization is 99.6% effective. Has no effect on the production of sex hormones in men or women. Men will continue to produce sperm-free seminal fluid during intercourse and women will continue to menstruate.

The procedure takes about 20 minutes for men and one hour for women. Depending upon the patient, a general or local anesthetic is used. Considered permanent. Surgery to reverse the procedure is available, but is costly, is considered major and results are not guaranteed.

These above are reason that make the effectiveness of birth control a very argumentive concept.