Contraception Facts
Contraception Facts That You Should Know
Contraception facts can help you decide what birth control method you want to use, if you're not ready to rear a child. There are many alternatives to consider.
• Approximately sixty-two million women in the United States are in the phase of their life when they could bear children. But not all wish to. Forty-three million women in this country are active sexually, but do not want to have children, and their partners do not use contraceptives. The average woman in the U.S. wants to only have two children, so she will need to use contraceptives for about thirty years.
• Contraception facts usually refer to birth control, and to one or more medications, devices or actions performed so that pregnancy is prevented, or its likelihood lessened. Birth control is very common in family planning. Contraception may allude to mechanisms that are supposed to keep the sperm from fertilizing the egg.
• Different contraception methods are effective to various degrees. Condoms are the only contraception method that provides protection from STD's, or sexually transmitted diseases. Some other methods work by preventing you from ovulating, making your reproductive tract more inhospitable to a man's sperm, or altering his or your reproductive tract to that you are rendered sterile.
• Barrier methods are one means of contraception. Facts about these methods are well-documented, since most of them have been around for awhile.
• Condoms are an effective barrier between sperm and eggs. In addition, cervical barriers can be used, which include the contraceptive sponge and the cervical cap.
• Hormonal methods are also an important part of contraception facts. The most well-known method is “the pill”, which is an oral contraceptive. A patch and a vaginal ring are also sometimes used.
• Emergency contraception is available in most areas, and is commonly referred to as the “morning after pill”. It is used after a condom breaks, or any unprotected sexual intercourse. Emergency contraception is thought to work by ovulation suppression.
• There are also devices that are placed inside the uterus to prevent pregnancy. Contraception facts describe one such device, the IUD, (intra-uterine device), which is shaped like the letter “t”, which helps to hold the device in place.
• Sterilization is rather like the last stop on the contraception itinerary, since it's usually the last resort. For women, the procedure is tubal ligation, in which the woman's fallopian tubes are clamped, cut, blocked or tied. For men, the process is a vasectomy, where the surgeon seals the end of the vas deferens with stitches or clamps, after cutting.
• Contraception facts should all be gathered before a decision is made in these cases. There is much information available, and you should avail yourself of all of it before making a decision on contraception.