Birth control
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Birth control or contraception is a way to prevent pregnancy during sexual intercourse. Some of the contraceptives available can also protect a person from sexually transmitted diseases.
When people practice contraception to prevent STDs and pregnancy, sometimes it is called safe sex.
Birth control is also sometimes called family planning. This is because it means that people have babies and make their families when they plan for it. This means that babies and families do not happen by accident.
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[edit] Types of birth control
There are many types of birth control. Some of these have been done for a long time, but many of them were only discovered in the last seventy five years.
Another word for a type of contraception is a method.
[edit] Barrier methods
A barrier is something that stands between two things. So barrier methods stand between the sperm and the ovum (egg). Some barrier methods help prevent many sexually transmitted diseases (STDs):
- Condom – this is the oldest barrier method. A condom is a thin tube (often made of latex) that the man puts over his penis. This keeps the sperm from getting to the egg. Condoms are also called rubbers.
- Female condom – this is like a condom, but it goes in the woman's vagina.
Some barrier methods only protect a small amount against STDs:
- Diaphragm and cervical cap – these are objects that a woman puts in her vagina to cover the cervix (the opening at the bottom of the uterus where sperm get in).
- Contraceptive sponge – this is a sponge that is filled with spermicide (a substance that kills sperm) and is put in the woman's vagina over the cervix.
[edit] Hormonal methods
These can only be used by women. Doctors are trying to find a way to use hormonal methods for men.
- Birth Control Pills – these are pills that a woman takes every day that make her stop ovulating (making eggs). They usually have both female hormones estrogen and progesterone in them. Some have only progesterone.
- Birth Control Patch – this is a small and thin object that is put on the woman's skin and stays there. Hormones in the patch go into the skin and into the woman's body. This makes her not ovulate.
- Emergency contraception pill – also called the day-after pill. This is a medicine that is taken after sex that makes the woman less likely to get pregnant. It is best if used very soon after sex. It is recommended to be taken no more than 3 days after the event. After this time, the pill no longer works well.
- Implants – these are objects that are put under the woman's skin and stay there for years. They slowly put hormones into her body and make her not ovulate. These only have progesterone in them (not estrogen).
- Injections (shots) – this is where a doctor or nurse gives the woman a shot with a needle every three months. They inject a progesterone hormone that makes the woman not ovulate.
- Rings - a soft plastic ring that is placed inside the vagina. The hormones in the ring go into the woman's vagina and into her body to prevent her from ovulating. The ring cannot be felt during sex and one ring lasts for up to three months.
Implants and injections are very good for younger women or women who cannot take a pill every day.
All hormonal birth control methods have some risks for side effects (bad things that happen if you take a medicine). They can make a very small increase in the risk of blood clots in the lungs, strokes, heart attacks, and breast cancer. But these risks are not as big as the risk a woman has if she gets pregnant.
Many hormonal birth control methods also make women's menses shorter and with less bleeding.
Hormonal methods do not prevent STDs.
[edit] Intrauterine methods
This is where an object is put in the woman's uterus (womb, where the fetus grows when she is pregnant). This object is called an intrauterine device or IUD (acronym).
IUDs are the most common birth control method used in the world. They have many good things about them:
- Inexpensive (do not cost very much money)
- Do not need the woman to do anything after they are put in
- Lasts a long time (up to 10 years)
- Works very well at stopping pregnancy (98-99% of pregnancies are stopped)
The most bad part about IUDs is that they have to be put in by a doctor. There is some risk of infection of the uterus after the IUD is put in, but this is only for 1-2 months after.
IUDs can also be used as a day-after method to prevent pregnancy after the woman and man already had sex.
IUDs do not prevent STDs.
[edit] Sterilization
This is when a man or woman has surgery to make them not able to make babies.
Men can get a vasectomy. This is a small surgery where the tube that carries sperm from the testicles is cut.
Women can get tubal surgeries. These are ways that the fallopian tubes are cut or clipped so that eggs cannot go down them to the uterus. (The fallopian tube is the tube that carries the egg from the woman's ovary).
Other surgeries will make a woman sterile (not able to get pregnant). These are not done only for contraception, but they are done for other reasons.
- Hysterectomy surgery to remove the uterus
- Oophorectomy surgery to remove the ovaries (both must be removed to make a woman sterile).
[edit] Traditional contraception
These have been used for a very long time. They were used before modern medicine. Some of them were used before scientists even discovered how reproduction (making babies) happens.
- Coitus interruptus – when the man takes his penis out before semen (liquid that has sperm in it) comes out. This is not a good method of birth control because the fluid that comes out before semen comes out also has sperm in it, and because if the man's semen is close to the woman's vagina, she can still get pregnant.
- Non-vaginal sex – sex without putting the man's penis in the woman's vagina.
- Abstinence – not having sex.
Many methods can reduce the risk of STIs, but only abstinence is 100% effective.
[edit] Periodic abstinence
This means a man and a woman practice abstinence (not having sex) when the woman is fertile. When the woman is not fertile, she will not get pregnant when she has sex.
- Natural Family Planning - This is also named fertility awareness. For this method, a woman reads her temperature (how warm her body is) in the morning, or she reads her cervical mucus (liquid that comes out of her vagina). Using the temperature or the cervical mucus, there are rules that say when the woman is fertile and not fertile.
- Billings Ovulation Method, Creighton Model FertilityCare, two-day method, mucus-only method, basal body temperature method, sympto-thermo method - These are different names for Natural Family Planning.
- Rhythm method - This is where a woman records the number of days between her menses (the time when she bleeds). There is math the man and woman can do to know when the woman is more fertile and less fertile. For some women, the math does not work and they get pregnant when the math says they are less fertile.
[edit] Lactational Amenorrhea Method
This is when a woman is breastfeeding (using her breasts to make milk for her baby). There are certain rules the woman can use to know if she is not fertile.
[edit] Induced abortion
Induced abortion (sometimes called just abortion) is when a doctor gives a pregnant woman a medicine or does a surgery to stop the pregnancy. Some people do not call abortion a kind of contraception. This is because contraception means preventing pregnancy, but abortion is stopping a pregnancy that has already started.
Abortion is not a good birth control method. If a woman does not want to get pregnant, other methods are more safe and inexpensive (cost less money). So many doctors who do abortions for women help women find a better way to not get pregnant the next time.
[edit] Religion and contraception
Some religions do not like contraception. Some of them teach that contraception is a sin.
Religions ideas about contraception:
- Catholicism – almost all types of birth control are a sin (except Natural Family Planning or abstinence).
- Protestantism – most Protestant churches believe birth control is not a sin.
- Islam – most types of Islam believe birth control is good (except for sterilization).
- Judaism – there are many different beliefs in Judaism about birth control, but even the most conservative types of Judaism allow it if the woman will get sick if she gets pregnant.
Religious beliefs that contraception is a sin also keep people from doing safe sex. Some groups who are opposed to this belief say it is dangerous in places where there is a lot of HIV and AIDS, because condoms make people much less likely to get HIV.
In Africa, Christianity is very powerful. There are also many people in Africa who have HIV. There are some countries in Africa where 20% of the adults have HIV. If these countries do not use condoms to stop HIV, many more people will die. Many Christian churches tell people in these places that the solution to the epidemic is monogamy - keeping a marriage one-to-one for the basis of the family. Some also say that condoms are not the answer, because they encourage people to sin instead of start families. They teach that married people do not have to have sex outside their marriage and put themselves at risk. Many people listen to the church about condoms, however some also have sex outside of marriage. This means some people still have sex with many others without using condoms, spreading HIV.
Many people in the world have asked the Catholic church to stop teaching that condoms are a sin (especially in Africa). However, the church will not change its beliefs, or what it teaches, when the world changes. They do not change even when some scientists who study AIDS say that more people will get HIV if the church does not change.
[edit] External links
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